Writing and Research
Current Research
- Stable Spaces: Sustainable community asset ownership in the arts. 2023 – 2024. Funded through the Manatū Taonga, Minstry for Culture and Heritage Te Urungi, Innovation Fund.
Edited Publications
- Christina Houghton, Melissa Laing and Becca Wood (eds) 2021, About Walking. 15 months of artist walks in Tāmaki Auckland, (Auckland: Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery)
- Negotiating Conversational Frequency, Performance Ethics Working Group Report July 2017, (Auckland: University Without Conditions)
- Melissa Laing (ed) 2012, 978-0-9864650-5-5 (Auckland: ST PAUL St Publishing)
Catalogue Texts
- Some parallel discussions in Bruce E. Phillips (ed) 2019 Share/Cheat/Unite vol 4, (Auckland: Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts)
- ‘Being here, with you’ in Rebecca Lal (ed) Unstuck in Time: After 2015 (Auckland: Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts)
- Under a Flag, in Bruce E. Phillips and Rebecca Lal (eds) 2012 What do You Mean We?, (Auckland: Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts)
- ‘Introduction’ and ‘Negotiating an ethical commons of expression’ in Melissa Laing (ed) 2012, 978-0-9864650-5-5 (Auckland: ST PAUL St Publishing)
- Into a void, text for Revolutions per Minute, a book on the work of Paul Cullen, 2011 (Auckland: Narrow Gauge)
- Catalogue Text on Simon Glaister for the exhibition ‘I try to help them give form to the many options available to them.’ curated by Daniel Munn 2010 at A Centre For Art
- Strategic Suspensions in Dabek, R. (ed) 2009 Species of Space, exhibition catalogue for the exhibition Species of Space at West Space, Melbourne
Focus Groups
- Artists have your say on the Review of the Copyright Act, Facilitated by Melissa Laing with collaborators ST PAUL St Gallery Three, 2019
- Navigating Conversational Frequency, On Conversation, a research residency at Te Tuhi Gallery, Auckland, 2016
Magazine Articles and Reviews
- Opinion: The case for improved arts infrastructure in New Zealand, The Post, Oct 30 2024. https://www.thepost.co.nz/culture/360467149/case-improved-arts-infrastructure-new-zealand
- Opinion: Creative NZ needs to step up: $25 an hour is a joke for contractors, Dominion Post, Aug 12 2021 https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/300380322/creative-nz-needs-to-step-up-25-an-hour-is-a-joke-for-contractors. Expanded analysis here: https://melissalaing.com/cnz/
- Soapbox: On resisting the idea of the solitary artist, 9.11.2018 https://www.thebigidea.nz/stories/soapbox-on-resisting-the-idea-of-the-solitary-artist
- Loose Canons: Melissa Laing 16.02.2018 https://pantograph-punch.com/posts/loose-canons-melissa-laing
- The Uther Dean Double Bill: A Tandem Review, 20.10.2017 http://pantograph-punch.com/post/the-uther-dean-double-bill
- Cold Call: A Review of A Streetcar Named Desire 30.08.2017 http://pantograph-punch.com/post/review-streetcar
- Chemical Romance: A Review of The Effect, 08.08.2017 http://pantograph-punch.com/post/review-the-effect
- Chalk Stories: A Review of My Best Dead Friend 17.07.2017 http://pantograph-punch.com/post/review-my-best-dead-friend
- The Quieter Romance of the Western Line, Pantograph Punch, 02.03.2017 http://pantograph-punch.com/post/Western-Line
- Review: Fringe Festival Auckland, Pantograph Punch, Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3. 2017
- Review: Free Happiness, Pantograph Punch, 15/08/2016 http://pantograph-punch.com/post/review-free-happiness
- Rethinking the past, a review of Re-inventing New Zealand: Essays on the Arts and the Media by Roger Horrocks, NZ Books Issue 116 Summer 2016
- ‘Displacing, Detaching: Good and Bad Refugees in Fortress NZ’, Pantograph Punch 16/09/2015 http://pantograph-punch.com/post/displacing-detaching-fortress-nz
- ‘Out at Sea’ Pantograph Punch, 04/06/2015 http://pantograph-punch.com/post/Out-at%20Sea-On-Taking-a-Year-off-and-Building-a-Boat
- Slippery Questions: The Role of Ethics in Art, 15.10.2014 http://pantograph-punch.com/post/slippery-questions-the-role-of-ethics-in-art
- Not to be sneezed at, a review of Fantastica: The World of Leo Bensemann by Peter Simpson, NZ Books Issue 94 Winter 2011
Performance Ethics Working Group Publications
- Introduction and A description of how the Navigating Conversation Frequency discussions were structured, Melissa Laing (ed) Negotiating Conversational Frequency, Performance Ethics Working Group Report July 2017 (Auckland: University Without Conditions)
- Performance Ethics Working Group Podcasts, University Without Conditions, 2014
Academic Publications
- Shaking the snow-globe and changing the city in Cameron Catiere and Leon Tan (eds.) Routledge Companion to Art in the Public Realm, Routledge, 2020
- Airport Art and Uniqueness of Place in Linda L. Lowry (ed) The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Travel and Tourism, 2017 SAGE http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483368924.n17
- In My Empty House, Studies in Material Thinking, Volume 05, 2011, (Im)materialising Time http://www.materialthinking.org/papers/51
- Air Travel and Omnipresent Disaster, Published in Crossing Cultures: Conflict, Migration and Convergence – 2009 – Proceedings of the 32nd Congress of the International Committee of the History of Art (CIHA) – Miegunyah Press – Melbourne University – Australia
- Through the Transit Zone : between here and there, PhD Thesis, Melissa Laing, 2008
http://hdl.handle.net/2123/4027 - Liminal Art in the Transit Zone, Published in Philament an online journal of the arts and culture, vol 9, 2006
Unpublished Talks and Conference Papers
- A Requiem for the TWA Terminal, Requiem for an Airport, CIty Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 3 December 2020
- Whau King Awe Some, presented at Cities in a Climate of Change: Public Art, Environmental and Social Ecologies, IAPA Conference, Auckland, New Zealand 2015
- Performance Art, Audience Agency and the Institutional Desire for Advance Disclosure of Potential Harm, presented at the Cultural Studies Association Australasia (CSAA) Conference, Wollongong, Australia, 2014
- Performing Assembly, Together<>Apart, AAANZ Annual Conference, University of Sydney, Australia, 2012
- Contesting the national identity with the movement of your body, Postcolonial Studies Research Network Conference, Citizenship in an Era of Global Crisis, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, 2011
- The fictional and aesthetic characteristic of politics. The political act of the arts. Contact, AAANZ 2011 annual conference, University of Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand, 2011
- The systemic violence of politics, Two performance works that examine Australia’s election rhetoric and asylum seeker policy, paper presented at the 6th ECPR General Conference, University of Iceland, (25th – 27th Aug. 2011), Session: Politics and the Arts in a Time of Crisis and Anxiety, Panel: Senses of violence?, 2011
- Curating Print, paper presented at the Print Symposium 2011, 15, 16 April, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealan, 2011
- Museums in Transit: An Examination of the Growing Collaboration Between Museums and Airports, Presented at the AAANZ: Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference – ANU – Canberra – 26 to 28 November 2009 – Contemporary Space in Crisis
- Managing Our Fear of Disaster Through Simulation, Presented at the AAANZ: Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference – ANU – Canberra – 26 to 28 November 2009 – Session 15: Real Emergency: Art And The Crises Of The Contemporary World
- Considering the Border (Art) of the Transit Zone, Presented at the Trans : A Visual Culture Conference – University of Wisconsin – Madison – 2006
- The Transit Zone : Excluded Space and Art, Presented at the AAANZ: Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference – Monash University Melbourne – 2006