I Like It. What is It? Resident Artists
Design: Imogen Bellotti
After an extraordinary few months of reading and discussing an abundance of brave and brilliant ideas from artists all across the country, we are thrilled to announce the I Like It. What is It? residents. It’s been an inspiring and humbling process for us, and one that has been supported kindly and rigorously by a thought-provoking community of artist associates.
An integral part of MAYK’s practice is a dedication to engaging generously with artists to bring bold and unusual ideas into a space of exploration and connection. We are committed to producing art that we believe has the potential to create gathering spaces that illuminate, question, celebrate and challenge the world we live in. In collaboration. Through conversation. These I Like It. What is It? residencies supported by Jerwood Developing Artist Fund, are designed to create breathing space and bespoke support to artists playing with intricate early ideas. We’ve called these ideas ‘boomerang’ ideas; the ones that keep coming back, that linger and insist on attention but without knowing their form yet. In this process, as ever, we will prioritise care, slow-working and mischief. There is no fixed outcome. It’s time to play.
Over the next two years, we will be working closely together to create a space for experimentation, playfulness and thoughtfulness. We’re delighted to see what happens and to begin working with these brilliant humans.
Here they are:
Malaika Kegode and Handina Dutiro
Photo Credit: Jon Aitken
Malaika Kegode and Handina Dutiro are sisters. Malaika – the older of the two – is a writer and spoken word artist with a background in film and theatre, while younger sister Handina is a songwriter and self-taught music producer. Based in Bristol, the pair grew up singing and playing instruments together, bonded by a love and passion for music.
Since then, Malaika has gone on to write and perform professionally across a variety of stages. Most recently, her autobiographical spoken word gig/theatre show Outlier was co-produced by Bristol Old Vic. Similarly, Handina’s musical prowess has led to them playing with bands Disaster Clinic and ZENA at festivals around the country, such as Valley Fest, Harbour Festival and BIMM Live.
The two have collaborated on lots of tracks and projects including Wide as the Sea, a short poetry film about millennial queerness that they made together during lockdown on a £10 budget. Malaika and Handina aim to make high quality, infectious, inspiring work that challenges boxes we can find ourselves put in. Over their residency with MAYK, the pair are excited to explore deeper. To make weird noises and weird things, to find new stories to tell and create new environments to tell them in.
Watch their announcement video here.
Kit Hall
Photo Credit: Paul Blakemore
Kit Hall is a dancer, choreographer, performer, producer and holistic massage therapist based in Bristol.
Their dancing is currently curious with: the material of the body, relational & sculptural movement, exploring what it is to stay(dance) in touch, attention, gesture, liveness, growing imagination and community building.
Using improvisation, movement, sound, sensory work, materials and outdoor practices, Kit creates choreographic works that involve the bringing together of questions, observations, play and feeling in different forms of live performance, workshops and writing, presenting these nationally and internationally.
To date – inspired by care work and through research on performing care – with dancers and carers, they created a solo dance work for stage, You sit there and self-published a bookwork Movements of Care which has had 250+ copies distributed across Europe. These works were made to encourage conversations on dancing as a practice of care and care as a practice of dancing & on the similarities or disparities between care receiver/giver & audience/performer.
Kit was a recipient of Action Hero 2019 fellowship, and is proud to be a member of INTERVAL, an artist collective in Bristol.
During Kit’s residency they will be diving into the world of slime, exploring and experimenting with the materiality and movements that slime carries and sustains.
Read Kit’s announcement blogpost here.
Luca Rutherford
Photo Credit: Camilla Greenwell
Luca Rutherford is a Newcastle based artist, making new socially engaged work that sparks conversations inside and outside of theatre spaces. She is an associate artist of ARC Stockton, Cambridge Junction and a movement practitioner with Frantic Assembly.
She is a writer, performer and dramaturg that asks big questions with playfulness. Her work is rooted in intersectional feminism. It is for the adventurous, and also the shy. It is for those who are curious and who want a safe space to explore what feels messy.
She also makes public art, dance theatre, short film and sound art. Her processes are rooted in spaces of listening where collaborators, participants and audiences are willing to be changed by what they hear.
During Luca’s residency she will be working on SOFT, an experiment into how we are hardlined about being soft; how we are serious about playing; how quickly we can connect to the power of slowness. All in search of connecting to our joy for the natural world.
Read Luca’s announcement blogpost here.
Malik Nashad Sharpe
Photo Credit: Henri T
Malik Nashad Sharpe is a choreographer and movement director working with dance, dark fantasy, and horror. Malik is based in London. Creating primarily underneath the alias Marikiscrycrycry, he makes provocative performance works that are engaged with the formal construction of affect, atmosphere, and dramaturgy from the marginal perspective.
His works often address violence, alienation, horror, melancholia, belonging, and the horizon and his works have been widely presented across the U.K., Europe, and Canada. In Roskilde Festival 2023, he premiered his large-scale production of DARK, HAPPY, to the CORE to widespread acclaim, with critics calling the work, 'jaw-dropping' (in Scenenblog).
As a movement director, he has worked widely across the British theatre sector, including on the productions of Henry V (Shakespeare's Globe/Headlong), Bootycandy (Gate), Closer (Lyric Hammersmith) and The Glow (Royal Court) to name a few.
He is currently an Associate Artist at The Place, and a studio resident of Somerset House Studios. Malik is also a guest teacher in dance and performance at the Stockholm University of the Arts in Sweden. During his residency with MAYK, Malik will explore the concept of Hang Time, creating a transformative group performance – one that confronts mental health issues head-on – intertwined with the essence of Black hair.
Read Malik’s announcement blogpost here.
