Emilia White is a Toronto-based performer and object maker who embraces imperfection through a DIY aesthetic, creating absurd, playful performances grounded in feminist perspectives. Drawing on her background in theatre and puppetry, she disrupts conventional performance spaces to facilitate shared experiences among participants. She primarily uses her sewing machine to create performance objects, and her recent work focuses on producing multiples that reveal the artist's labour 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 and La Sotterenea 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).