Maiko Matsushima is a Philadelphia-based visual artist, costume, set, and installation designer. Her works make luminous to the naked eye what might otherwise be invisible or taken for granted. A proud immigrant, born and raised in Japan, Matsushima’s work challenges traditional notions of the American aesthetic by creating visual and experiential works infused with a multiplicity of perspectives, and incorporating influences on style, form and content from outside the US. She works in the traditional theater, on and off Broadway, in experimental dance and in devised, ensemble performance. Her designs have been seen at Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater, Arden, BalletX, Headlong Dance Theater, and Pig Iron, as well as in Broadway productions such as Spring Awakening, Radio Golf, Assassins, and Pacific Overtures as the associate costume designer. She is also the associate designer on Wicked in Japan. After working as a theatrical designer in Tokyo, New York and regional theaters around the U.S. for two decades, Matsushima is now partnered with David Brick, a co-founder of Philadelphia’s Headlong Dance Theater, in creating publicly engaged art. Their most recent collaboration was The Quiet Circus, http://thequietcircus.com, a 15-month residency at the Washington Avenue Green that led to free weekly performances with a porous cast (audience members could sign up to participate) and a series of outdoor installations and games that audience members touched and operated.
