Adrian Piper
Background & Education 1969 - School of the Visual Arts 1974 - B.A. in Philosophy from City College
of New York 1981 – Ph. D in Philosophy from Harvard Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown,
Harvard, Michigan State, & USCD Became first tenured African American
woman in the field of Philosophy Has written several books Currently is living and working in Berlin
Methods/ Techniques Performance art Drawing on photographs of the
performance art Calling Cards Collage Text – Reading is a key element! Multi-media – music, film, spoken narrative
Approaches to Subject Matter Contemporary artist
Feminist artist, mixed race artist, and an academic Explores issues of class, sexuality, gender and
Race Conceptual art – Makes viewers think and ask
questions Uses herself
Almost all art has some sort of self portrait Making a statement about how the contemporary
art sector operates Breaks with the stereotypical notion of how and what a
black artists should produce Creates complex philosophic concepts about identity
within experiments
Mythic Being Series 1972 - 75 Disguised herself
Androgynous, racial indeterminate young man, dressed in black t-shirt, flared jeans, big sunglasses, an Afro wig, mustache, and is smoking a cigarette
Performance Art Then drew on the photographs of the
performance Added speech from her teenage journals
• Mythic being: It doesn't matter who you are if what you want to do to me is what I want you to do for me (in 3 parts)
• Color Coupler Prints• 24 x 17 in. each
• Village Voice Ad
• Numbers 1-4• 17 in total• Ads published
monthly on Village Voice Gallery Page
• Mythical Being: Let’s Talk• 6 old crayon drawings of B/W
Photographs
I/You (Her) 1974 Piper’s face with a collage of a white
woman’s face Speech balloons track Piper’s
estrangement from other women
• Mythic Being: I/You (Her) Numbers 1 -3• B/W photograph with felt tip pen and collage• 8 x 5 in each• Set of 10
I/You/Us 1975 Series of 6 Photographs Undisguised Piper under talk bubbles Demanding attention Argues angrily but still witty Fictional nature of race as a fixed category
of identity Race and it’s social effects
• The Mythic Being: I/You/Us #1• Paperc ollage and felt tip pen
on B/W• 17.25i x 12.25in
• The Mythic Being: I/You/Us #2• Paperc ollage and felt tip pen
on B/W• 17.25i x 12.25in
• The Mythic Being: I/You/Us #3• Paperc ollage and felt tip pen
on B/W• 17.25i x 12.25in
Catalysis Series 1972 -73 Public performances
Subway and city streets Forced confrontation between viewer and artist
Rode through subway with a cloth in her mouth
Walked through streets with “wet paint” painted on her shirt
Attention is directed at viewing the public’s confusion, disgust, and fear
Calling Cards 1986-90 Manipulates Business cards Examines stereotypical depiction of
Blackness is deployed within pop culture environments
Performance Art Direct and intimate social confrontation Guerilla Performance/Social Intervention
• Political Self Portrait No. 2
• Self Portrait – Exaggerating my Negroid Features
• Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady,
• 1995 • Photograph altered with oil
crayon, • 10 x 8 in.
Relatedness to Other Artists Barbara Kruger – Text in Image Elizabeth Catlett – Art based on her
experience as a black woman
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