Adrian Piper has was introduced to me in high school during some of my most transformative years and has continued to inform both my art practices and activist work. Her current retrospective at MoMA is evidence that she had mastered pretty much every medium there is: sculpture, painting, illustration, comics, film, performance, photography, text, etc. While she is undeniably multidisciplinary, her performances are the most evocative and important to me. Through her performance, Adrian visualizes the notion that bodies are products of cultural inscription. She I am most interested in her performances as they relate to the viewer. It seems Piper was one of the first (or at least most notable) performance artists to directly confront the audience with her pieces, causing an immediate and memorable reaction. Piper plays with the power (and lack of power) of her physical body and identity by inserting it into various spaces. In the piece Catalysis IV (1971) (pictured above), the title says it all. Adrian draws attention to herself by stuffing a massive cloth into her mouth while strolling around common areas, causing a catalysis reaction within the audience. By presenting herself in such a noticeable manner, she forces the audience to interact.
