Introduction: The Trickster’s Methodological Potential
The trickster figure exists across various cultural contexts, emerging as an archetype that utilizes the methodologies of play and “craft” to illuminate authority and destabilize authorized boundaries. As “the epitome of binary oppositions” the trickster figure rejects social borders, boundaries, categorization, and identification. Often a shape-shifter, the trickster embodies an ongoing state of liminality—they are always on the cusp of becoming another. Though the trickster is often designated the title of “the fool,” it is, in fact, his “foolish” methods that render them the opposite—a divine entity embodying serious potential. The foolish tactics of the trickster are what illuminate …show more content…
In Section I, I will discuss the ways in which feminist artists of the 1970s have reclaimed craft to illuminate and destabilize the fictitious art/craft divide. I will continue by explaining how these artists not only privileged craft but embodied craft. In other words, I will explore the ways in which a legacy of feminist artists has performed the role of the trickster, embodying “the crafty self” to gain recognition. After concluding this section, I will follow in Section III by exploring twins as a case study for trickster embodiment. I will utilize the mode of storytelling to honor this marginalized knowledge form of the trickster, and ultimately argue that through narratives of twinship, we can come to understand twins, like feminist artists, as living embodiments of the trickster …show more content…
It was only in the mid-1500s when a binary was constructed between the two terms. The term “art” was designated to the upper-echelon mediums of painting and sculpture, designating them to the public realm of the museum. Art forms traditionally associated with lower classes, racial minorities, and women—such as textiles, sewing, quilting, and woodwork—was in contrast, coded as “craft” and designated to private (and sometimes domestic) realms. This binary production was ultimately a knowledge production project, eliciting ideologies about “whose art should be seen (public)” and “whose art is of cultural significance.” This meaning-making project ultimately reinforced class, race, and gender boundaries, further marginalizing minority populations by forcing their cultural contributions to the private
The trickster figure exists across various cultural contexts, emerging as an archetype that utilizes the methodologies of play and “craft” to illuminate authority and destabilize authorized boundaries. As “the epitome of binary oppositions” the trickster figure rejects social borders, boundaries, categorization, and identification. Often a shape-shifter, the trickster embodies an ongoing state of liminality—they are always on the cusp of becoming another. Though the trickster is often designated the title of “the fool,” it is, in fact, his “foolish” methods that render them the opposite—a divine entity embodying serious potential. The foolish tactics of the trickster are what illuminate …show more content…
In Section I, I will discuss the ways in which feminist artists of the 1970s have reclaimed craft to illuminate and destabilize the fictitious art/craft divide. I will continue by explaining how these artists not only privileged craft but embodied craft. In other words, I will explore the ways in which a legacy of feminist artists has performed the role of the trickster, embodying “the crafty self” to gain recognition. After concluding this section, I will follow in Section III by exploring twins as a case study for trickster embodiment. I will utilize the mode of storytelling to honor this marginalized knowledge form of the trickster, and ultimately argue that through narratives of twinship, we can come to understand twins, like feminist artists, as living embodiments of the trickster …show more content…
It was only in the mid-1500s when a binary was constructed between the two terms. The term “art” was designated to the upper-echelon mediums of painting and sculpture, designating them to the public realm of the museum. Art forms traditionally associated with lower classes, racial minorities, and women—such as textiles, sewing, quilting, and woodwork—was in contrast, coded as “craft” and designated to private (and sometimes domestic) realms. This binary production was ultimately a knowledge production project, eliciting ideologies about “whose art should be seen (public)” and “whose art is of cultural significance.” This meaning-making project ultimately reinforced class, race, and gender boundaries, further marginalizing minority populations by forcing their cultural contributions to the private