Stacy Makishi is a transplant from Hawaii who found paradise in Dalston, London in 1994. Like a bonsai plant, she is small but old. She has been making art for over 30 years. A cross-fertilization of theatre, comedy, film and visual art, her work is as complex as it is accessible; humorous as it is challenging; visual as it is literate. It ranges across solo performances for stage, large-scale outdoor participatory projects and intimate one-to-ones.
Also a teacher, director and mentor in international demand, Makishi believes in art’s transformative power and strives to share her creative process with others in order to put more aloha into the world.
Her solos for theatre include The Comforter, Vesper Time and The Falsettos, all of which have toured extensively in the UK. She also directs participatory works, most recently with Contact Manchester Young Company. Commissioned by Contact as a performance response to the Wellcome Collection’s 2015 exhibition Sexology, Under the Covers examined young people’s attitudes to sex, questioning myths and breaking down taboos.
Stacy Makishi’s work has been presented at the Wellcome Collection, Southbank Centre for Yoko Ono’s Meltdown, In Between Time Bristol International Festival, the Traverse Edinburgh and BRUT : Vienna. She has been awarded an ICA Attached Artist Award, a Millennium Fellowship Award, a Live Art Development Agency One to One Bursary and the Franklin Furnace Award. Her work is produced by Artsadmin.
