| Dates: | born 1948
| | Biography: | 1948 Born in Harlem, New York.
Lives and works in Cape Cod, New York
and Wellesley, USA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1998 Who Are You? Selected Works by
Adrian
Piper, Davis Museum and Cultural
Center,
Wellesley College, Wellesley
1995 Cornered/Decide Who You Are,
SUNY
Buffalo, Buffalo, New York
1992 Decide Who You Are, Grey Art
Gallery, New York
1991-92 Adrian Piper: European
Retrospective, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham;
Cornerhouse, Manchester; Cartwright
Hall, Bradford; Kettle's Yard, Cambridge;
Kunstverein, Munich
1991 Space, Time and Reference 1967-
1970,
John Weber Gallery, New York
1987-91 Adrian Piper: Reflections 1967-
1987 (Retrospective),
The Alternative Museum, New York;
Nexus Contemporary Art Center,
Atlanta; Goldie Paley Center,
Philadelphia; University of Colorado
Art Gallery, Boulder, Colorado; Power
Plant Gallery, Toronto;
Wooster Art Museum, Wooster, Ohio;
Lowe Art Museum,
Coral Gables, Florida; Santa Monica
Museum of Contemporary Art,
Santa Monica; Washington Project for
the Arts, Washington DC
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1999 Global Conceptualism: Points of
Origin
1950s-1980s, Queens Museum of Art,
Queens, New York
1998 Out of Actions: Between
Performance and the Object, 1949-1979,
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los
Angeles
If I Ruled the World, Kunstraum
Munchen, Munich
1997 Between Two Worlds, Strong
Museum, Rochester, New York
1996-97 Hidden in Plain Sight: Illusion in
Art
from Jasper Johns to Virtual Reality, Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, Los
Angeles
Face a l'Histoire, Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris
1996 Thinking Print: Books to Billboards
1980-95, The Museum of Modern Art,
New York
1995-96 Reconsidering the Object of Art:
1965-1975
(withdrew due to Phillip Morris
Sponsorship), Museum of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles
1995 Africus: Johannesburg Biennale,
Johannesburg
1994 Mappings, The Museum of Modern
Art, New York
1992 Mistaken Identities, University Art
Museum,
University of California at Santa Barbara,
Santa Barbara, California
The Boundary Rider: 9th Biennale of
Sydney, The Art Gallery of New South
Wales, Sydney
1990 l'Art Conceptuel: Une Perspective,
Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris (and toured)
1989 Making Their Mark: Women Artists
Move into the Mainstream 1970-85,
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
(and toured)
1988 Commitment to Print, The Museum
of Modern Art, New York (and toured)
1977 10e Biennale de Paris,
Manifestation Internationale des Jeune
Artistes, Paris
1971 7e Biennale de Paris,
Manifestation Internationale des Jeune
Artistes, Paris
FURTHER READING
Babha, H. "Focus: Black Male:
Representations of Masculinity
in Contemporary American Art,"
Artforum (Feb. 1995): 86
Barber, B. "Performance as Social
Intervention: Interview with Adrian Piper,"
Parachute (Fall 1981): 25-8
Barrow, C. "Adrian Piper: Space, Time,
and Reference 1967-1970,"
in Adrian Piper (exh. cat.), Ikon Gallery,
Birmingham 1991
Berger, M. "The Critique of Pure Racism:
An Interview with Adrian Piper,"
Afterimage 18 (Oct. 1990)
Berger, M. "Displacements" in Ciphers of
Identity, University of Maryland,
Baltimore 1993 | | | Source: | "Trace, 1st Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art", Festival catalogue | | | Date of source: | 1999 |
|
| | Description: | To enter the American artist and
philosopher Adrian Piper's installations
is to experience, if only fleetingly, the
full impact of racial prejudice from the
position of the 'other'. The inadvertent
glances and expressions of momentary
fear in white eyes give a sense of what it
is to be black in a white world. Piper's
statements are uncompromising attacks
and invariably on target. Her directness
stems from the combined visual and
verbal power of her work.
Safe is a photographic and audio
installation built into a small room.
Hanging like an icon across each corner
of the room is an enlarged magazine
photograph of a group of black people
apparently enjoying a relaxed social
event: perhaps a family reunion. Silk-
screened texts reinforce this seductively
inclusive atmosphere. "We are around
you," they proclaim; "We are among
you," "We are within you," "You are
safe." This comfortable ambience is
shattered by the audio track playing
within the room. Piper is heard
describing the smiling group portraits
as "sardonic."
The audio script broadcasts the internal
monologue of an unwitting bigot for all to
hear, mixed with fragments of Bach's
Aria No. 4 from St Matthew's Passion -
the song that Peter sings when he
realises he has denied knowing Christ
three times. Piper holds out the
possibility of reconciliation, while
simultaneously confronting the white
viewer with the hypocrisy of this desire.
| | Description Source: | "Trace, 1st Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art", Festival catalogue | | Description Source Date: | 1999 | | Gender: | male | | Type: | person |
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