Adrian Piper

Adrian Piper is a highly acclaimed conceptual artist and philosopher whose work, in a variety of media, has focused on racism, racial stereotyping and xenophobia for over three decades. When she created the photographic self-portrait series Food for the Spirit (1971), she was immersed in Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781), in particular his theories about identity and loss of identity.

The self-portraits were taken as she stood before a mirror in very low light. At the time of this project, Piper was obsessed with Kant's ideas and believed she was losing touch with the physical world. In order to ground herself, she made a "reality check" by looking into the mirror and photographing herself. The images seem nearly identical except that she varies whether she is clothed, partially clothed or naked. The photographs themselves are difficult to read, but their dark tonal qualities draw the viewer in. Their appearance is crucial to the experience of viewing them: it requires an extended period of time literally to see the images and then to begin to understand them. In this regard, Food for the Spirit is actually a performance for both the artist and the viewer. The ideas behind the creation of this series are still relevant to Piper's work today, as she has continued to use her body as an artistic and political subject.

Food for the Spirit was executed during a time when many artists were exploring the ideas of Minimalism and Conceptualism, which often privileged the mind over the body. Of the series, critic Maurice Berger wrote: "She could no longer reconcile the socially removed, elitist mind games of Minimalist and Conceptual art with the fact that as an African American woman she faced constant discrimination both within and outside the art world." Thus Piper's work was unusual for its time in its focus on herself. In choosing to make her body the subject of this series of photographs, the piece takes on political overtones about identity and discrimination, subject matter she continued to explore more directly in the work that followed. The ideas behind Piper's work, in fact, have informed a new generation of artists working today.

Adrian Piper has produced drawings and prints, installations, performances and videos in addition to photographs and soundworks. Her principal publications are in metaethics, Kant and the history of ethics. Piper earned a B.A. in Philosophy from the City College of New York and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. The recipient of Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities, Andrew Mellon and Woodrow Wilson Research Fellowships, Piper has exhibited in major museums from New York to Japan.

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Adrian Piper
FOOD FOR THE SPIRIT