Maria Silk (b. 1993) is an artist, writer, and choreographer based in San Francisco.
Silk’s artistic practice centers on performance. Her work makes use of a variety of tactics: choreographed movement, state-shifting improvisation, scripted texts, and persona work. Lip-sync features prominently in Silk’s performance practice, serving as a bridge between drag performance and embodied somatic practices. Conceptually, her practice examines themes of collectivity and friction within queer and trans life as well as received narratives around queer history and identity.
Silk also writes on performance, queer and trans history, sexual cultures, and the countercultural and artistic legacies of San Francisco and the Bay Area, with a special focus on conducting interview and oral history projects related to those themes.
A 2017 danceWEB Scholar at ImPulsTanz, Silk has shown work locally and internationally at the Berkeley Art Museum, the Cantor Center for the Arts, CounterPulse, Slash, Southern Exposure, Fierce! Festival (Birmingham, UK), and Improspekcije (Zagreb, Croatia). With Brittany Newell, Silk co-directed HUSH-HUSH, an event series programming experimental performance by local queer and trans artists, from 2017 to 2020. Her practice draws on over a decade of activity as a drag queen and DJ in San Francisco’s queer nightlife scene, as well as training in physical theater, Butoh, contemporary dance, and improvisation. Silk holds an MA in art history and a BA in performance studies from Stanford University.
Silk is known as a very good sport.
contact: miss.silk.worm [at] gmail [dot] com
photo by Robbie Sweeny
Maria Silk 