Jana Omar Elkhatib, Performer-in-Residence

Introducing: Performer-in-Residence Jana Omar Elkhatib
September 4 - November 2, 2019

In conjunction with the group exhibition To see and see again, Hamilton Artists Inc. is pleased to welcome Jana Omar Elkhatib as our performer-in-residence. Jana is a performance artist and a writer. In her works, she often intervenes with sound, especially speech, to explore separation and longing, and the role of memory in rooting identities and complex histories eroded by colonization. She is interested in the re-imagining of these histories, and the generations of artists inheriting and re-contextualizing them within new artistic forms.

Performances:
Another retelling to the young: September 7, 8:00 pm
I See in the Sea a Sea: September 14, 8:00 pm

Throughout her residency, Jana will be using the gallery as her studio space to research, write, and develop performances. Visit Jana at the Inc. on Wednesday afternoons to learn more about her practice and the work she will be developing.  Jana will be at the gallery on the following Wednesdays: September 25, October 2, October 16, October 23, October 30.

Culminating Performance:
A body is a distant witness: October 26, 7:00-8:30 pm

As performer-in-residence, Jana has been developing a performance-reading specific to the Inc.'s courtyard. This performance will combine multiple elements including her narrative writings, multimedia, and gesture to explore the notion of the audience as witness, as well as our distinct experiences of time, perspective, and memory.

Header image: Jana Omar Elkhatib, Another retelling to the young, University of Waterloo, 2019. Performance documentation. Photo by Lila Lavereau

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Jana Omar Elkhatib is a performance artist and writer based in Waterloo, Ontario. She recently completed her undergraduate thesis year in Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo. Both her writing and performance work explore the reimagining of inherited and collective memory. Jana will be Hamilton Artists Inc’s Fall 2019 Performer-in-Residence. Her short fiction has appeared in the New Quarterly.

—Posted Aug 28, 2019