I Like It. What Is It?: A Midway Glimpse with Malaika and Handina.
All images from Malaika and Handina.
We’re now fully immersed in I Like It. What Is It?, and it’s been a joy to be alongside our resident artists – Malaika Kegode and Handina Dutiro, Kit Hall, Luca Rutherford, and Malik Nashad Sharpe – as they carve their own paths through this unique, open-ended process.
This residency was never about rushing towards a finished product; instead, it’s about slowing down, creating breathing space, and letting ideas take shape without the pressure of an end goal. Over the past year, our artists have been playing, questioning, and rediscovering, allowing those persistent ‘boomerang’ ideas to shift and evolve.
Now, at this midway point, we’ve invited them to share a glimpse into what’s been emerging – fragments of processes, moments of discovery, and the unexpected turns their work has taken as it unfolds. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be publishing words and images from the artists, offering a snapshot of where they are now, an invitation into their worlds. We’re starting with Malaika and Handina, sisters based in Bristol who, through this residency, are exploring how music and sound can challenge the boxes we can find ourselves in. Hope you enjoy.
Learn more about I Like It. What is It? and Malaika and Handina’s project here.
Our time during this residency has mostly been spent dreaming, laughing and occasionally stressing. It’s been fun to allow ourselves the freedom of creating formlessly, allowing ideas to grow and not be tethered by the pressure of delivery and deadlines. As an experiment, it’s interesting to see which ideas stick and which slide away - to observe resistance and sit in the discomfort of not knowing what to do next.
Our initial idea of exploring memories of our teenage bedroom has grown to encompass more than if we’d made a show two years ago, as this slower way of working has allowed our ideas to change as our personal circumstances have. The idea is growing up with us, and daring us to look deeper into what we might want to make.
During this residency, Handina has started an MA, training to be a Music Therapist. We knew that we wanted music to be a fundamental part of what we made, and so her learnings have influenced our approach to creating. Handina’s research into the psychology of music has led her to creating soundscapes that indicate emotion and mood.
From looping the tapping of a keyboard and a cough stuck in a throat into an anxiety-inducing drone, to finding familiarity in songs using the Dorian Mode, we’re exploring how music makes us feel. Can we summon nostalgia and the memory of a place using audio alone? How might we invite audiences to join in a group music therapy session? How can we create the feeling of making music together that is accessible to people who don’t consider themselves musically able?
While this slow way of working is helping us deepen our practice, Malaika has identified that she struggles without finishing a day or a session with an output. This possibly stems from coming from a poetry/spoken word background where idea generation can lead to product very quickly. It’s also an old feeling that many artists (especially ones from working-class backgrounds) probably identify with, which is that if you’re not seen to be creating things consistently you fear being seen as lazy or unproductive. To combat that, during her MAYK sessions, as well as spending time doing research and generating with ideas, she also is making sure to have short bursts of making lots of things very quickly. She’s had a session with Rosana Cade to talk about playing with the creative process, especially about making work with someone you’re very close to.
The exciting moments we’ve found so far have been discussing how to make an installation, playing with loop pedals and a deep dive into how sisters are represented in art and media which led us to find unexpected kinship with The Kardashians.
