Kitoko Mai, Performer-in-Residence

Introducing: Performer-in-Residence Kitoko Mai
September 8 - October 27, 2018

In conjunction with Lisa Lipton’s solo exhibition this fall, Hamilton Artists Inc. is pleased to welcome Kitoko Mai as performer-in-residence. Kitoko is an emerging multidisciplinary artist whose practice aims to destabilize hierarchies of power and embrace fluidity of content, artistic form, and artistic process. Over the course of their residency, Kitoko will develop a performance piece exploring experiences and perceptions sex work and the sex industry in Hamilton and Toronto. As part of their research process, Kitoko will facilitate a number of participatory events and community workshops to gather data for their culminating performance.

Drop-in Participatory Performance: September 15, 1-4 pm
Blanket Performance: Ongoing, September 8 – October 27
Culminating Performance: October 17, 7-9 pm

Throughout their residency, Kitoko will also be engaged in a durational performance  in which they will be repurposing and redistributing a blanket that was the site of personal trauma. Visit Kitoko in the gallery to learn about their work. All programs are free and open to all.

Header image: Kitoko Mai, Because I'm not a boy or a girl, McMaster University, 2018. Photo: Colin Czerneda.

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Kitoko Mai (Pronouns: They/Them) is a queer multidisciplinary performance artist based in Hamilton, Ontario. Their practice incorporates live performance, poetry, visual art, found art, photography, video art, sound art, and theatre/storytelling. Kitoko’s work is rooted in social justice, anti-oppression, accessibility, and intersectionality. Their personal philosophy is to produce work that aims to destabilize hierarchies of power and embraces fluidity in terms of content, medium, and artistic process. Kitoko is currently an artist-in-residence at Trinity Square Video working on a piece surrounding Disclosures and the act of “coming out”. Kitoko is also workshopping a play called “The Fruits That Rot in our Bellies,” with Womens Work Hamilton, exploring childhood sexual assault.

—Posted Aug 29, 2018