Johanna Householder is one of the founders of the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art. Her interest in how ideas move through bodies has led her collaborative practice in performance art, audio, video, dance and other media. As a member of the feminist performance ensemble, The Clichettes (with Louise Garfield and Janice Hladki), throughout the 1980s she established lip sync as a viable medium for political critique. Their retrospective exhibition and accompanying catalog, Lips, Wigs, and Politics (curated by Ivana Dizdar) won numerous prizes at the 2025 GOG Awards. Johanna has performed across Canada and at international venues for over 40 years – most recently at RiAP in Québec (2026). With Tanya Mars, she co-edited two books: Caught in the Act: an anthology of performance art by Canadian women (2004), and More Caught in the Act (2016). She is a convenor of the Artistic Research Working Group of Performance Studies international. She is professor emerita at OCADU, where she taught performance art beginning in 1988.
