Adrian Piper (born September 20, 1948) is an American conceptual artist and philosopher. Her work addresses ostracism, otherness, racial “passing,” and racism. In the 1970s, Piper began a series of street performances under the collective title Catalysis, which included actions such as painting her clothes with white paint and wearing a sign that read “WET PAINT” and going to the Macy’s department store to shop for gloves and sunglasses; stuffing a huge white towel into her mouth and riding the bus, subway and Empire State Building Elevator; and dousing herself in a mixture of vinegar, eggs, milk, and cod liver oil and then spending a week moving around New York’s subway and bookstores. The Catalysis performances were meant to be a catalyst that challenged what constitutes the order of the social field, “at the level of dress, sanity and the distinction between public and private acts.”
External Links
- Adrian Piper’s page (Adrian Piper Research Archive Foundation Berlin) http://www.adrianpiper.com/