Emilia White is a Toronto-based performer and object maker. Working within a DIY aesthetic that values imperfection and resists elitism, she creates absurd, playful, and participatory performances grounded in feminist perspectives. Influenced by anti-theatre traditions such as Dada, Fluxus, and Happenings, her projects disrupt conventional performance spaces, transforming everyday environments into sites of collective creation.
Emilia draws on her background in theatre and puppetry, as well as four years living and working with the political art collective Taring Padi in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to create “art for the people” and immersive, shared experiences.
For the past five years, Emilia has primarily used her sewing machine to create objects for performance. Her visual art draws from craft traditions and recently has focused on producing multiples to reveal the labor of the artist and the therapeutic value of making.
Her work has been presented throughout Canada, the United States, and Indonesia, including Sweet Action Theatre, Small World Music, OCAD, BSMT 254, and the Tranzac Club in Toronto; Espace Transmission in Montréal; Planet Ant Theatre, Jam Handy, Sidewalk Festival, Light Box, MOCAD, CMAP, and the Contemporary Art Institute in Detroit; Dixon Place and the Dumbo Arts Festival in New York City; the Chicago Women's Funny Festival; the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.; and Lembaga Indonesia Perancis, Kinoki Film Forum, Gallery Salihara, Taman Budaya, and Galeri Nasional in Indonesia. She holds a BFA in Theatre & Original Works from Cornish College of the Arts and an MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design.
Emilia is an Assistant Professor of Integrative Arts at York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD).