About

This practice-based research focuses on the colourful, mischievous and misunderstood character of the fool. Often dismissed as simple (having too little) or mad (having too much)(Wilford, 1969), they embody wisdom transcending rationality and legibility, destabilising entrenched binaries such as normal/abnormal and order/chaos. How can this transgressive character be embodied to encourage joyful, unconventional performative practice?

I will explore this character as both embodied method and subject, offering a critical counterpoint to hegemonic structures of power within expanded performative practices through an intersectional lens incorporating personal experience.

Drawing from expanded contemporary performance practices, including my own, I will reconsider foolishness as a generative and emancipatory force, investigating how it functions as a critical tool for developing practice built on empowered, collective joy. Through defining and reframing the fool I will produce a body of experimental practice and peer research.