Natalie Robertson is an artist and Senior Lecturer in Art and Design at AUT University, Auckland.
Within this essay Natalie Robertson draws parallels between Maori legend Trickster god ‘Maui’ of a thousand tricks’ and Trickster tales from ‘South and Central America literature known as ‘magical realism’’.(22) Robertson makes connections between Maui’s Trickster characteristics with other Tricksters worldwide, and demonstrates how this knowledge may help understanding the art practice of Francis Alys.
Robertson suggests that ‘Maui of a Thousand Tricks… shapeshifter and change agent provides us with an example of the artist who challenges the norms of his culture’… which are ‘qualities associated with innovative creative practice’.(20) Robertson provides the example of Alys’ work The Ambassador, in which he used a live Peacock as his representative at the 2001 Venice Biennale. Through this thought-provoking performance Alys challenges the norms of the art culture by sending an animal as his agent to a reputable and prestige international art exhibition. This cynical gesture was to criticize the contemporary social and political context of art, in particular the hierarchical structure of art establishments. Alys assimilates Trickster attitudes by embracing contradictions, irony and humour in order to reveal reverse truths and make bold political statements.
New Zealand artist Judy Darragh, also assumes this persona of the Trickster as she has ‘a genuine interest in fakery. Never afraid of artifice, instead she indulges in it, continuing to remind us that… art is a series of tricks’.(Conland, 205) Darragh utilizes this concept of fakery and artificiality by making artworks from inexpensive materials. In particular, second-hand goods from op-shops, kitsch copies of fine art and $2 shop merchandise such as plastic flowers, fluorescent paint, and fake jewels. Through the use of ‘fake’ materials and copies of fine art, Darragh critiques and comments on the larger issue of genuine artifacts which is a concern for the contemporary artist in such a reproducible world. Like the Trickster, Darragh uses contradictions with ironic undertones to challenge the divide between low art and high art, by incorporating economical materials and attributing value to craft art. As Natasha Conland describes Darragh’s practice, ‘The preposterous try-hard, the fool, has a way of reminding us more poignantly of the real’.(Conland, 205)
Through her use of the fake and artificial to challenge and undermine traditional conventions, Darragh effectively creates subversion. She inversely explains ‘the real’ more accurately through exposing a closer reality.
Robertson believes that ‘Tricksters demonstrate the kind of attitude that I think contemporary artists can learn from’.(20) Creative practitioners Alys and Darragh whom simulate the personality of Maui and Tricksters use their art as device to make statements about wider issues of political context of the community which I too believe the contemporary artist can aspire to.
References:
Natalie Robertson , “The 10 Predicaments of Maui: Notes on Tricksters”, Brian Butler ed., Volume 1, Auckland: Artspace & Clouds, 2008, pp. 16-28.
Conland, Natasha, ‘Speculation’. Auckland, New Zealand. Venice Project, Clouds, 2007, p. 205
