A Mythic Being

Here's something fun! In the introduction to Projects, Russel Ferguson mentions a tradition I'd among artists working in the USA that I'd never heard of before. He cites Adrian Piper's work as an example of this tradition.

Until reading the introduction, I had never heard of Piper's work. Here is the artist in a still from a 1975 street performance in Cambridge Massachusetts titled The Mythic Being: Cruising White Women.

This still of Piper's holds a special place in my heart, as it is taken in front of what is now Au Bon Pain, home of the most convenient public restroom in Harvard Square.

Wow. Cruising White Women right by the Harvard campus. The Cambridge cops must have given him a hard time. Think of what they did to Skip Gates! And he was just walking into his house!

The 70's...what a wild time. This cat was an artist. An ar-tiste! People used to take risk back then! They lived on the edge. Rent control was in full effect in Cambridge. You could live for nothing. There were no yuppie bars or chain stores in Harvard Square. There were radicals living life to the last drop!

Adrian Piper, The Mythic Being is kicking the awesome science:

...Here the mythic being is again, ready to deprogram and reprogram. This revolution will not be televised. No siree!

Here's a more contemporary picture of Piper:

What? Adrian Piper is a White lady????

Here's a video clip from School of the Art Institute of Chicago's video data bank where she discusses her awakening as an artist. On the website, we this description of Piper's work:

As a black woman who can 'pass' and a Professor of Philosophy who leads a double life as an avant-garde artist, Piper has understandably focused on self-analysis and social boundaries. Over the years her work in performance, texts, newspaper, unannounced street events, videos, and photographs has developed an increasingly politicized and universalized image of what the self can mean.”—Lucy Lippard, Issue: Social Strategies for Women Artists (London: ICA, 1980)

What? Adrian Piper isn't a White lady???

She's in costume! Nikki Lee is carrying on in this same tradition. The ideas behind her work are different, but the two artists' work share one thing in common: they use this odd construct of race as a canvas. This is so much fun to watch.

Above, she's doing performance art photography. Here she is in action.

Two more facts about Adrian Piper.

1. She started out doing acid art in high school.

2. She was terminated from her position as a professor at Wellesley college because she refused to fly back to the US after being put on a TSA watch list.

Am I the last person to find out about Adrian Piper? This is great stuff and it makes me enjoy being alive. I hope you like it too.