Dissected Parlour confronts shifting gender and cultural power in the post‑Weinstein and #MeToo era. Through meticulously staged photographs that fuse art‑historical references with Straka’s dark wit, power‑dressed figures challenge colonial and patriarchal symbols—most pointedly the piano, an icon in Aotearoa’s cultural memory from Jane Campion’s film The Piano. The scenes stage tension and reversal: women in red armbands poised to ignite change, a non‑binary airline hostess screaming defiance, a returning burqa figure signaling visibility, hulking men failing to reassert control, and a child amid the rubble contemplating what comes next.

Working across film and paint, Heather Straka’s technically precise practice is known for provocation without apology. Building on The Anatomy Lesson and Blood Lust, this series sharpens her long‑running interrogation of stereotype, surface, and spectacle—where composition is lush, humor is caustic, and roles blur between protest and pageant to expose how power is performed, contested, and undone.