Adrian Piper

Background & Education  School of the Visual Arts  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  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 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  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  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