Adrian Piper
Personal Chronology
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Photo credit: Larry Andrews
1948 Adrian Margaret Smith Piper born September 20 in Washington Heights,
only child of Daniel Robert Piper and Olive Xavier Smith Piper.
1951 Piper is taught to draw by maternal grandmother Margaret Ann
Norris Smith, a former high school teacher, who lives with family.
1952 Piper enters Riverside Church Nursery and Sunday School.
Hears Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade.
1953 Piper writes and illustrates own stories. Spends summer at
Camp Good News on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Photo credit: Daniel R. Piper
1954 Piper enters first grade at New Lincoln School in Manhattan,
on a scholarship. Spends summer (and every summer thereafter
through 1962) at Camp Bass Lake Farm in Altmar, New York. Learns to swim. Takes
violin lessons.
1955 Sees first film: Danny Kaye in The Court Jester.
1956 Piper begins ballet and piano lessons, takes tennis lessons
from father. Reads Kipling's
Jungle Books, Herman Wouk's Marjorie Morningstar, complete Mary
Poppins series (repeatedly), Albert Payson Terhune's Lad series.
Watches Lassie, The Sandy Becker Show, Perry Mason, The Perry Como
Show on television. Discovers MAD Magazine.
1957 Piper takes art classes at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) after
school. Reads Lewis Carroll, becomes Alice in Wonderland (through
1979). Listens to Stravinsky's Les Noces. Fourth grade teacher, Mrs.
Catherine Moore, brings Piper up to speed in math.
Photo credit: Daniel R. Piper
1958 Piper’s fifth grade teacher, Miss Modiano, asks parents if
she is aware that she is colored. Piper gets sick a lot. Listens to
The FBI in Peace and War,
Suspense,
Amos 'n' Andy,
Burns and Allen,
The Shadow,
Our Gal Sunday,
Ma Perkins,
One Man's Family,
Helen
Trent on radio. Sees
The Horror of Dracula and wears garlic around neck for rest of
summer. Gets pleuredema. Gives away superb comic book
collection. Takes riding lessons at Van Courtland Park.
1959 Piper receives art lessons from paternal grandmother,
Beatrix Downs Piper McCleary, a former grammar school teacher.
Discovers Booth Tarkington, Laura Ingalls Wilder; Piper sells her complete
Nancy Drew series for a pittance. Gets The Diary of Anne Frank from
parents for birthday. Gets a journal book from parents for Christmas.
1960 Piper begins journals with New Year.
Photo credit: Daniel R. Piper
1961 Piper abandons piano lessons after paralyzing stage fright
before planned participation in Town Hall recital. Sells superb collection of 45
RPM rock music records, rediscovers Bach. Piper works as
assistant Arts and Crafts counselor at Bass Lake Farm (through
1962). Does India Ink gouache illustrations of Hans Christian
Anderson's "What the Moon Saw." Reads Charles Dickens, Mark Twain.
Sees Arthur Miller’s
The Misfits. Ceases riding lessons and never gets on a horse again.
1962 Piper joins local high school Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Family
moves
from
Washington Heights to Riverside Drive, leaving bachelor maternal uncle, Martin
Smith, who also lived with family, in Washington Heights apartment, where he
becomes a recluse. Maternal grandmother, Margaret Ann Norris Smith,
dies. Piper joins Puerto Rican gang. Teaches herself to play the
guitar. Bikes weekly to Greenwich Village for Sunday breakfast at
the Cafe Figaro. Participates in life drawing groups at various
locations in Manhattan. Listens to Johnny Pacheco, Charlie
Palmieri, Celia Cruz. Sees Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad for the
first of many hundreds of times, Greta Garbo's complete oeuvre.
Photo credit: Joseph Gresser
1963 Abandons ballet and modern dance lessons. Takes jazz dance lessons. Starts painting and
drawing classes at the Art Students' League after school, summers,
and weekends. Starts part-time free-lance fashion modeling (through
1965). Piper attends the March on Washington. Reads Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Franz Kafka.
Listens to Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, The Weavers.
1964 Hangs out at Steve Paul's The Scene; encounters Edie
Sedgewick. Piper reads Freud, Edmund Wilson, Melville. Works through
Russian phase (Tolstoy, Gogol, Chekhov, Dostoievsky, all in
Constance Garnett translation), German phase (Hesse, Mann, Böll,
Brecht, Musil, Grass), French phase (Sartre, Camus, Balzac, Zola,
Stendhal, Proust, de Maupassant, Gide, Gautier), Scandinavian phase
(Lagervist, Hamsun, Strindberg, Undset, Bergman, Sjöström).
Multiple viewings of Bergman Trilogy (Through a Glass Darkly,
Winter Light, The Silence).
1965 Piper reads Beat poets (Ginsburg, Kerouac, Burroughs),
discovers yoga, does psychedelic drawings and paintings,
writes poetry. Reads Ginsberg's Howl, takes LSD, leaves home, works as a discotheque dancer
at
the
Ginza and Entre Nous nightclubs, picked up by police, sent to Juvenile Court, pleads guilty to being
a
wayward minor, sent to Bellevue. Resumes artwork, finishes high school course work, meets Phillip
Zohn
at Hillside, resumes painting classes at the Art Students' League. Reads The Upanishads,
The
Bhagavad-Gita. Sees Fritz
Lang's Metropolis. Discovers Busby Berkeley.
1966 Piper graduates from New Lincoln School. Enters the School
of Visual Arts (SVA). Studies yoga at Swami Satchidananda's Integral Yoga
Institute on West End Avenue (through 1971). Goes to NYC art galleries, subscribes
to Art News and Artforum, attends films by Andy Warhol, the Kuchar
brothers; happenings by Robert Rauschenberg, Simone Forti Whitman,
and Marcel Duchamp at SVA. Reads Goethe, Dreiser, Kenneth Patchen.
Photo credit: Daniel R. Piper
1967 Piper begins summer philosophy courses at the City College of New
York. Meets Rosemary Mayer and Vito Acconci. Stops attending
classes at SVA. Reads Robbe-Grillet, Beckett, Stein, Borges,
Sarraute, Quineau, Duras, Butor, Pinget, Wittgenstein; listens to
Schoenberg, Webern, Boulez, Stockhausen, Cage, LaMonte Young, Terry
Riley, Steve Reich. Attends Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical
Company production,
Conquest of the Universe or When Queens Collide. Sees Sol LeWitt's
show at Dwan Gallery,
46 Variations on Three Different Kinds of
Cubes. Begins to carve up objects spatiotemporally into infinite
series, progressions, and variations. Goes on Bresson binge:
Au
Hasard Balthazar,
Mouchette,
The Diary of a Country Priest,
The
Trial of Joan of Arc,
Pickpocket. Sees Delmer Daves'
Dark Passage.
1968 Piper ‘s Conceptual art works published in Vito Acconci's 0
to 9 Magazine. Meets Sol LeWitt. Attends Yvonne Rainer's dance
concert, The Mind is a Muscle three days in a row. Attends lectures
by Borges at SVA and 92nd St. YMCA. Awarded First Prize in Drawing
and Honorable Mention in Sculpture at School of Visual Arts Annual
Student Exhibition. Sells sports magazines on the telephone. Moves
to loft on Hester St. Listens to Bach's orchestral works.
Hospitalized with dysentery and colitis; becomes a lactovegetarian.
Produces Parallel Grid Proposal for Dugway Proving Grounds Headquarters
and Concrete Space-Time-Infinity pieces. Performs Meat Into Meat
in first incarnation as Five Unrelated Time Pieces. Meets Hans Haacke.
Takes a crack at James Joyce, gives up. Attends multiple viewings of Jean-Marie
Straub's The Notebooks of Anna Magdalena Bach.
Photo credit: Daniel R. Piper
1969 Piper works as receptionist and administrative assistant in
Seth Siegelaub's January Show gallery. Her
Three Untitled Projects mail art
exhibition is published by 0 to 9 Press. Shows conceptual work at
Dwan Gallery, Paula Cooper Gallery, Stadtisches Museum Leverkusen,
Kunsthalle Bern, etc. group shows. Graduates from SVA with Associate Arts degree in
Fine Arts. Reads Kant's
Critique of Pure Reason. Models for Raphael
Soyer (through 1971). Executes drawings for Sol LeWitt. Types Ad
Reinhardt manuscript for Lucy Lippard. Works as bookkeeper for Cameo
Personnel Agency.
1970 Piper performs Catalysis series. Conducts a series of juice
fasts. Begins CCNY full-time with plans to major in philosophy,
musicology, physics, and history; eventually settles for a major in
philosophy and minor in Medieval and Renaissance musicology. Clerk
in CCNY music library (through 1971). Listens to Ockeghem. Exhibits
Context #7 in Information show at the Museum of Modern Art.
Withdraws Hypothesis from Conceptual Art and Conceptual Aspects
show at the New York Cultural Center, in protest against Nixon's
invasion of Cambodia and Kent State and Jackson State massacres. Joins Art Worker's
Coalition. Attends open rehearsals held by Steve Reich and Phillip
Glass.
Photo credit: Unknown
1971 Piper hears about cancellation of Hans Haacke's Guggenheim
show. Fasts, isolates self, does yoga while writing paper on Kant.
Produces
Food for the Spirit private loft performance. Starts
women's consciousness-raising group with Rosemary Mayer, Donna
Dennis, Randa Haines, Grace Murphy, Jane Weiss, others. Works as
receptionist, clerk, and switchboard operator at the Animal Medical
Center (through 1974). Reads Simenon, listens to Palestrina.
1972 Piper starts The Mythic Being/Village Voice performance
series. Holds music listening evenings for small group of
philosophy classmates. Reads Henry James. Followed home from CCNY
by Diotima the cat, who settles in.
1973 Piper researches and writes musicology thesis on Johannes Okehem's Missa
Prolationem,
philosophy honors thesis on deception and self-deception.
Photo credit: Wai Yip
1974 Piper graduates from CCNY summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, etc.
Awarded the Phi Beta Kappa Medal for the Best Honors Thesis in the Social Sciences.
Awarded Danforth and Ford Foundation graduate fellowships. Moves to
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Begins doctoral program in philosophy at
Harvard University. Reads George Eliot, Jane Austen, listens to
Monteverdi.
1975 Piper performs later Mythic Being streetworks in
Cambridge
and Some Reflective Surfaces at Whitney Museum. Produces posters.
Listens to funk, Mario Davidowsky, Josquin des Prés. Reads Anthony Trollope.
1976 Piper completes course work at Harvard. Works as teaching
assistant for courses taught by John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin.
Reads Richard Brautigan.
1977 Piper awarded Harvard Sheldon Traveling Fellowship to spend
the academic year in Berlin and Heidelberg working on Kant and
Hegel. Passport and belongings stolen in Musee d'Art Moderne while
constructing Art for the Art World Surface Pattern for the Paris
Biennale. In Heidelberg, participates in student resistance to Altstadt
Studentenheim Sanierung; studies and writes all day, drinks
beer all evening, goes dancing most of the night. Reads Peter
Handke, Karl Philipp Moritz. Rediscovers 1960s and '70s rock, also
Nina Hagen, Ian Dury.
Photo credit: David Auerbach
1978 Piper returns to U.S. Flies from Cambridge to Paris for four days to see
Paris-Moscow, 1900-1930 exhibit at Centre Pompidou, Beaubourg. Premieres
Aspects of the
Liberal
Dilemma at Artists Space in New York. First philosophy article published,
"Utility, Publicity, and Manipulation." Listens to Crosby, Stills,
Nash & Young, discovers
The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
1979 Piper awarded her first full-grant Visual Artists’ Fellowship by National Endowment for
the
Arts
(NEA). Moves to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Begins tenure-track
Assistant Professorship in Philosophy at the University of
Michigan. Completes Three Political Self-Portraits.
1980 Piper premieres Four Intruders Plus Alarm Systems and It's
Just Art in The Art of Conscience exhibition at Wright State
University. Listens to Patti Smith, The Police, Talking Heads.
1981 Piper completes Ph.D. dissertation, "A New Model of
Rationality," with John Rawls. Buys house. Piper ‘s maternal Uncle
Martin dies. Piper gets really, really sick with "the yuppie
disease" (an undiagnosed chronic fatigue syndrome-like illness).
Performs
It's Just Art at AND/OR in Seattle, Washington, where
member of audience asks Piper why she is up on stage shaking her
booty. Hears Ornette Coleman perform live. Reads Russell Hoban's
Riddley Walker. Sees Steve Martin's
Pennies From Heaven.
1982 Piper awarded senior status NEA Visual Artists' Fellowship.
Also awarded two-year Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellowship to do
research in Philosophy at Stanford University. Gets married.
Travels to Jamaica on honeymoon, meets mother's family in Kingston,
Portland, and Port Antonio. Moves to Menlo Park, California.
Begins work on manuscript, Rationality and the Structure of the
Self. Listens to Charlie Barnett, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Steely
Dan, Heinrich Schütz, Guillaume de Machaut.
Photo credit: Daniel R. Piper
1983 Piper premieres Funk Lessons at the Nova Scotia
College
of
Art and Design. Piper ‘s best friend Phillip Zohn dies of
AIDS-related encephalitis. Begins design of poster, Think About It,
commemorating 1963 March on Washington. Reads Toni Morrison. Goes
dancing regularly and hears live funk bands from Oakland and Los
Angeles at Little Orphan Annie's, Foster City, California. Watches
Entertainment Tonight. Sees Brainstorm, The Hunger.
1984 Piper visits William "Bootsy" Collins' manager, views
Parliament / Funkadelic live performance videotapes. Reluctantly
returns to the University of Michigan. Reads Joyce Carol Oates.
Listens to Buxtehude. Sees Taxi zum Klo.
1985 Piper ‘s father dies of cancer of the pharynx, shunned by
his sister Beatrix Hamburg and her family during his illness and
death. Piper swims daily; views every episode of Dynasty made up to
that point. Denied tenure at the University of Michigan. Begins
continuing self-collection piece, What Will Become of Me. Premieres
A Tale of Avarice and Poverty at the New Museum of Contemporary
Art.
Photo credit: Jeffrey E. Evans
1986 Piper’s philosophy article, "Two Conceptions of the Self,"
voted one of the ten best papers of 1985 by editors of
Philosophical Studies.
Prepares
My Calling (Card) #1 and #2. Begins
Vanilla Nightmares drawings on newspaper.
Reads
Anita Brookner. Moves to Washington, D. C. Separates from husband.
Begins permanent position at Georgetown University. Listens to Bach
Cantatas.
1987 Piper celebrates Diotima the cat's fifteenth birthday and
year together with Piper. Attends inaugural meeting of Women of
African Descent in the Visual Arts (WADVA). Gets divorce. Starts
teaching Nietzsche in introductory ethics course. Completes Think
About It. At Jane Farver’s request, writes up first installment of Personal Chronology
for catalogue of twenty-year retrospective, Adrian Piper: Reflections
1967-1987, which opens at the Alternative Museum and travels around the
country (through 1991). Meets members of a "white" branch of the
Piper family at opening of retrospective in Atlanta, Georgia.
Awarded National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend to
complete Kant chapter of Rationality and the Structure of the Self.
1988 Piper joins stable of John Weber Gallery. Completes video
installations, Cornered and The Big Four-Oh. Injures knees, rereads
journals. Accepts tenured Associate Professorship in Philosophy at the
University of California at San Diego. Awarded Woodrow Wilson
International Scholars Fellowship in Washington, D. C. to work on
Rationality and the Structure of the Self.
1989 Piper awarded Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts.
Produces Ur-Mutter series. Cornered premieres at John Weber
Gallery.
Photo credit: David Auerbach
1990 Diotima the cat dies of brain hemorrhage. Piper produces
Pretend series. Accepts tenured Full Professorship in Philosophy at
Wellesley College and moves from Washington, D.C. to Wellesley,
Mass. Publishes "Higher-Order Discrimination." Piper’s 1975
performance,
Some Reflective Surfaces appears on the cover of
Art
in America. Exhibits new work at John Weber Gallery, Exit Art
Gallery, and Whitney Museum Film and Video Gallery. Awarded grant
from Awards in the Visual Arts. Dubbed "the artist of the fall
season in New York" by Michael Brenson in the
New York Times.
Rationality and the Structure of the Self becomes two books.
1991 Piper publishes "Impartiality, Compassion and Modal
Imagination." Exhibits What It's Like, What It Is #1 at the
Washington Project for the Arts, What It's Like, What It Is #2 at
the Hirshhorn Museum, and What It's Like, What It Is #3 at the
Museum of Modern Art. Twenty-year retrospective travels in England
and Germany. Art world rehabilitation continues. Publishes "Passing
for White, Passing for Black." Collapses twice from physical
exhaustion, ends spring semester on medical leave. Curtails
speaking and writing commitments.
Photo credit: Maurice
Berger
1992 Piper produces
Decide Who You Are series for exhibition at
John Weber, Paula Cooper, and NYU's Grey Art Galleries. Delivers
philosophy paper, "Xenophobia and Kantian Rationalism," and art
lecture, "Xenophobia and the Indexical Present," at day-long New
York University conference: "What Does the
Critique of Pure Reason
Have to Do With the Pure Critique of Racism? A Look at the Work of
Adrian Piper." Withdraws from Documenta. Collapses from physical
exhaustion at end of spring and fall semesters. Wins Wellesley
College Faculty Vacation Prize, spends it at Kripalu Yoga Center.
Publishes "Two Kinds of Discrimination."
Rationality and the
Structure of the Self becomes three books. Listens to Hildegard von
Bingen. Discovers
Star Trek,
Star Trek: The Next Generation,
Star Trek: Deep
Space Nine.
1993 Piper exhibits Hypothesis series at Paula Cooper Gallery.
Moves to Cape Cod to take care of mother during her terminal
decline from emphysema, while continuing to teach at Wellesley and
lecture on art and philosophy. Collapses from physical exhaustion
at end of spring and fall semesters. Further curtails speaking
engagements.
1994 Piper collapses from physical exhaustion at end of spring
and fall semesters. Mother dies from emphysema.
1995 Piper conducts two-week residency at the Kunstakademie
München entirely in German. Begins two-year process of managing
mother's estate. Discovers mother's journals. Collapses from
physical exhaustion, ends spring semester on medical leave. Awarded
Photo credit: Robert Rubin
Skowhegan Medal for Sculptural Installation. Withdraws early
conceptual work from L.A. MOCA exhibition, "1965-1975:
Reconsidering the Object of Art," upon discovering Philip Morris
sponsorship.
Ashes to Ashes produced, offered as a substitute to,
and declined by L.A. MOCA. Begins teaching
The Upanishads in
introductory ethics course. Collapses from physical exhaustion at
end of fall semester. Starts studying Iyengar yoga with Arthur
Kilmurray.
1996 Piper collapses from physical exhaustion at end of spring
and fall semesters. Delivers Inaugural Ian Burn Memorial Lecture at
Monash University, Melbourne and Museum of Contemporary Art,
Sydney. Exhibits Ashes to Ashes at John Weber Gallery. Out of
Order, Out of Sight, Volume I: Selected Writings in Meta-Art
1968-1992 and Volume II: Selected Writings in Art Criticism
1967-1992 published by MIT Press. Reads "the Johns" (Barth,
Cheever, Updike), and Faust by Mann, Goethe, and Marlowe. Listens
to The Anonymous Four.
1997 Piper publishes "Kant on the Objectivity of the Moral Law."
Diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis. Intensifies
yoga practice to three-plus hours daily, becomes a vegan. Doesn't collapse from physical exhaustion
at
end of spring
semester. Leaves John Weber Gallery to go solo, while continuing
non-exclusive relationship with Paula Cooper Gallery. Exhibits at
Galleria Emi Fontana (Milan), Thomas Erben Gallery (New York).
Reads John Banville. Discovers Gavin Bryars, Stefan Wolpe,
Discantus. Receives National Endowment for the Humanities Research
Fellowship. Elected as a Distinguished Scholar at the Getty
Research Institute. Celebrates 49th birthday at Richard Freeman's
Ashtanga yoga workshop. Embarks on two-year sabbatical from
Wellesley and postpones production of new artwork to finish
Rationality and the Structure of the Self, Volumes I-III. Spends
last seven months of 1997 disposing of paperwork backlog from 1993.
Photo credit: Adrian Piper
1998 Piper takes first trip to India for "Frameworks for Art"
conference, Parikh Centre for the Visual Arts, Bombay; delivers
talk, "What the Indexical Present Really Is." Discovers M. S.
Subbulakshmi, Pandit Jasraj, L. Subramaniam.
Who Art You? Selected
Works by Adrian Piper opens at Davis Museum of Wellesley College.
Continues disposition of Wellesley committee paperwork backlog.
Writes
Racism at Wellesley: Causes and
Containment for circulation
exclusively within Wellesley College Community, where it receives
College-wide sponsorship from all faculty anti-racism committees.
Ginger the cat chooses Cape Cod house inherited from mother as
birthing place for kittens. Decides to move permanently to Cape Cod
and keep surviving kittens (Kali and Clive). Takes Don Peccerill's
advanced Iyengar class. Under duress, becomes own contractor on
large studio/library/art storage addition to house. Under duress,
spends summer learning the construction industry (land surveys,
deeds, permits, plans, stock lists, demolition, backfilling,
excavation, foundations, forms, footing, floors, insulation,
framing, roofing, siding, heating, plumbing, sheetrocking,
plastering, painting, electrical wiring, landscaping, etc.). Moves
to Los Angeles for Getty Scholarship residency. At Getty, embarks
on rewriting ten- to fifteen-year-old "completed" portions of
Volume I of
Rationality and the Structure of the Self. Presents new
material from Volume I, "The Problem of Moral Motivation" and "The
Enterprise of Socratic Metaethics." Attends
Yoga Journal
conference, takes workshops with Richard Freeman, David Swenson,
Patricia Walden, David Life, Erich Schiffmann, John Friend. Makes
serious commitment to Ashtanga yoga; studies with Chuck Miller at
Yoga Works. Attends kirtan, joins Yoga Works' Yoga Sutras study
group, attends weekly lectures at the Vedanta Society. Breaks the
bank at the Vedanta Bookstore. Creates new course for Wellesley,
"Vedanta Ethics and Epistemology." Takes first baby steps into
Sanskrit.
Rationality and the Structure of the Self morphs back
into two books plus
Kant's Metaethics.
Photo credit: Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus
1999 Piper almost finishes rewriting Volume I of
Rationality and
the Structure of the Self. Presents new material from
Kant's
Metaethics, "Kant's Two Standpoints on Action." Learns Gayatri
mantra, Maha Mrtunjaya mantra, Ashtanga mantra invocation,
Saraswati Ma bhajan. Shows
Mythic Being series at Thomas Erben
Gallery. Writes "The Meaning of Brahmacharya." Studies Ashtanga
yoga with Tim Miller. Begins second series. Injures quadratus
lumborum. Attends Paul Cabanis' advanced Iyengar class once a week,
workshops with Richard Freeman, Erich Schiffmann, Gary Kraftsow,
Patricia Walden. Applies for Persons of Indian Origin expatriate card citing Hindu maternal
great-grandmother. Joins two
more
Yoga Sutras study groups hosted by Christopher Chapple and
Paul Cabanis respectively. Creates new seminar for Wellesley, "The
Philosophy of Yoga."
MEDI(t)Ations retrospective of
time-based media work opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art,
Chicago. Returns to full-time teaching at Wellesley, becomes Faculty Chair
of Wellesley's Black Task Force, teaches new Guyer/Wood translation
of Kant's
Critique of Pure Reason. Attends Patricia Walden's Level
IV and Aspiring Teachers classes.
Adrian Piper: A Retrospective
1965-2000 opens at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Photo credit: Julie Matthei
2000 Piper teaches "Vedanta Ethics and Epistemology" course
for first time. Secures permanent existence of Wellesley's Black Task
Force through College legislation. Attends Internationalen
Kant-Kongress in Berlin and "Science and Consciousness" conference
in New Mexico. Sends
Personal Report:
Fall
1990 – Spring 2000
to Wellesley President, who refuses to discuss
it. Home burglarized twice in two weeks. Spends summer doing
paperwork and fighting with security alarm company. Sues Wellesley
College for fraud, breach of contract, loss of reputation,
discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Rushed to hospital with ruptured
appendicitis one week after warning department chair of impending physical collapse.
Undergoes emergency appendectomy. Develops peritonitis, intestinal adhesions. Undergoes lysis of
adhesions. Released from hospital after one month. House vandalized. Goes on medical
leave for rest of Fall semester. Completes
The Color Wheel
Series, First Adhyasa: Annomayakosha #2-24 in time for
exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery. Concurrently exhibits related
works at Thomas Erben, both retrospectives conjointly at the New
Museum. Gradually resumes yoga practice with a few elementary
asanas. Completes design for
Prayer Wheel. Begins preparing
to leave U. S in wake of “election” of George W. Bush
as U.S. President.
Photo credit: Adrian Piper
2001 Piper begins working with yoga therapist. Pace of
recuperation retarded and complicated by post-operative
intensification of ankylosing spondylitis symptoms. Medical leave
extended through Spring 2002 semester. Completes
Prayer Wheel I.1
for Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Slowly resumes redrafting of
Rationality and the Structure of the Self. Revises "The Concept of
a Genuine Preference" from Volume II, begins revisions to "The
Utility Maximizing Model of Rationality" from Volume I. Completes
Das Gebetsrad Quadriert: Ein Radiostück for Documenta 11, and
Color Wheel Series
page
project for
Art Journal. The College cuts off health and
dental insurance retroactive to July 1, 2001, then reinstates it;
supplies false information to MetLife, resulting
in denial of disability benefits. American Association of University
Professors (AAUP) refuses to investigate. Boston association of black
women journalists informs Piper of decision not to report on lawsuit.
Piper tries and fails to
establish Adrian Piper Research Archive (APRA) in will.
2002 The College again cuts off health and dental benefits
and again reinstates them. Piper reads Joe R. Feagin's
Racist
America. Delivers "Recognition and Responsibility" to Boston
University Institute on Race and Social Division. Reads Ben
Bagdikian's
The Media Monopoly. Produces and mails postal artwork,
PRESS BLACK-OUT. Expands "Recognition and Responsibility" into a
book manuscript. Piper ‘s long-term disability benefits appeal
denied. Piper produces soundwork,
Shiva DANCES, for God's Sake.
Black Task Force votes to refuse comment for Vanessa Jones' "Fallen Star" article,
published in
The Boston Globe. Piper
Photo credit: Hedwig
Saxenhuber
‘s traveling European retrospective,
Adrian Piper Since 1965, opens
at the Generali Foundation in Vienna. Lawsuit against Wellesley
College dismissed on statute of limitations technicalities.
Fourteen prints from
The Color Wheel Series, First Adhyasa:
Annomayakosha exhibited at Documenta 11. Social Security disability
benefits appeal denied. Liver biopsy reveals "significant liver
damage, scarring, and chronic inflammation of unknown origin."
Succeeds in establishing the Adrian Piper Research
Archive (APRA).
Piper shoots
You/Stop/Watch video for installation. Sues Wellesley College
a second time through the Massachusette Commission Against Discrimination
(MCAD) for retaliation against first lawsuit. Delivers
"Documente aus den Staaten" at Museum Ludwig, Köln. Finishes
Rationality and the Structure of the Self, Volumes I and II (of
four). The College reduces salary by 25% due to medical limitations
on teaching. AAUP again refuses to investigate.
2003 Piper notifies Wellesley of receipt of Internationales
Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften (IFK) Fellowship. The College
cancels spring semester Metaethics course 17 days before spring
semester registration. Piper forced to decline IFK invitation on
medical grounds due to College's refusal to pay benefits during
period of IFK Fellowship; Piper amends MCAD lawsuit to include additional
charges. Finishes
Rationality and the Structure of
the Self, Volume III. Condenses Volumes I-III into two and spins
off Volume IV into separate project, Kant's
Metaethics. Delivers
"Funk Lessons Lessons" at the Art Institute of Chicago; "Now What?
Photo credit: David Campos
Passing Beyond Passing" at the University of Illinois,
Urbana/Champaign; "Talking Pictures" at the Museum of Contemporary
Art, Barcelona; and "Vergangenheitsverarbeitung and the Pursuit of
Happiness: Regarding the Other in Germany and the US" at the
Einstein-Forum, Berlin. Retrospective, Adrian Piper since 1965
opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona. Piper
pre-emptively withdraws Vedanta Ethics and Epistemology course,
creates and publicizes mid-level Philosophy of Yoga course for
Wellesley's Spring 2004 semester.
2004 Piper teaches Philosophy of Yoga course. Blocks
Philosophy Department's second attempt to cancel annual Kant
seminar. Finishes
The Color Wheel Series with video,
Shiva Dances
at the Art Institute of Chicago. Dean of The College
discontinues medical disability accommodations against doctors'
Photo credit:
Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus
warnings, effective Spring 2005. House vandalized. Begins
purchase of apartment building in Berlin-Mitte. Philosophy
Department accidentally drops new Rawls & Habermas course
description, repeatedly, from 2005 course catalogue. Piper’s second
liver biopsy reveals persisting cryptogenic portal Stage 2 fibrosis.
Piper discovers bhangra hip-hop. Shunned by Philosophy Department junior colleague;
Department and Committee on Faculty Appointments decline to reprimand
her. Piper teaches Kant's Metaethics seminar. Summarily
relieved of committee responsibilities and involvement in promotion
& hiring decisions by Philosophy Department. Develops chronic
pleurisy. Again amends MCAD lawsuit to include additional charges.
Attends London-Berlin premieres of
Shiva Dances with the
Art Institute of Chicago and gives talks: "Political Art and the
Paradigm of Innovation" (Tate Modern and Humboldt University Art
History Department), "Passing Beyond Passing" (Haus der Kulturen
der Welt). At urging of European friends, sees Lars von Trier's
Dogville; gets it. Invited to accept Research Fellowship at
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/ Institute for Advanced Study for
academic year 2005 - 2006. Produces and gives talk on soundwork,
Construct Madrid, at Residencia de Estudiantes, Madrid, for
citywide 2005 exhibition,
Itineraries of Sound. Attends second
opening of group show, "Funky Lessons", BAWAG Foundation, Vienna.
Photo credit: Angela Bilski
2005 Piper ensures ability to continue teaching without
disability accommodations, by correctly forecasting and scheduling
periodic physical collapses into Spring 2005 syllabus, totaling a
month of absence from classes (out of a three-month long semester).
Nevertheless falls asleep at wheel on highway twice, has minor
accident once, narrowly avoids major accident once.
Repeatedly gets flat tires on return Wellesley-Cape Cod commute. Refuses Dean of The College’s
pressure to forfeit Fall 2006 paid sabbatical. The College
rejects application for paid sabbatical for Fall 2005-Spring 2006,
rejects appeal, rejects Wissenschaftskolleg’s offer of junior
faculty teaching compensation, attempts to force application for
unpaid leave of absence. Piper refuses to apply for unpaid leave of
absence. Files internal formal grievance against President and Dean
for multiple violations of Wellesley’s by-laws and impairments of
its interests. President and Dean both refuse to respond.
Grievance Committee forbids speaking directly to its members,
denies request for hearing, denies request to question President
and Dean, denies request that President be recused as final court
of appeal, denies request for additional time to submit evidence,
dismisses grievance. AAUP again refuses to investigate. Scholars At Risk refuses to investigate.
Philosophy colleague warns Piper not even to approach relevant APA committees.
Piper again amends MCAD lawsuit to include
additional charges. Piper regretfully
declines invitation from Wissenschaftskolleg.
Spends four-day retreat at Sarada Convent.
The College requests conflict resolution.
Piper proposes resolution.
Sells house on Cape Cod. Sells car. Sells personal
effects.
Photo credit: Adrian Piper
Piper moves to East Berlin apartment with Ginger and Kali. Piper
becomes first (and, as of this date, only known) recipient of
German residency permit under new 2005
Ausländerrecht (Foreigners
Law)
Par. 71.3. AufenthG: Ausnahmefälle (Exceptional Cases).
Chronic pleurisy disappears. Ankylosing spondylitis symptoms
disappear. Liver fibrosis disappears. The College rejects conflict
resolution proposal, refuses to propose alternative. Piper rejects
Wellesley’s offer of “impartial” mediation in which both her lawyer
and the mediator are paid by The College. Dean of The College
cancels salary, health insurance, dental insurance, and pension
contributions in second week of fall semester. Piper begins final
revisions of
Rationality and the Structure of the Self. Completes
purchase of apartment building in Berlin-Mitte. Begins Visiting
Professorship at Danish Royal Academy of Art’s School of Walls and
Space.
2006 Dean of The College threatens to deduct health
insurance premiums from future salary payments. President of The College
resigns effective June 2007. The College’s Affirmative Action Officer
resigns effective June 2006. Philosophy Department
Photo credit: Polly Braden
goes into administrative receivership under supervision of
Associate Dean of The College. Dean of The College charges
$9,000.00 worth of health insurance premiums retroactively to July
2005, demands immediate payment. Piper finishes
Rationality and the
Structure of the Self. Finishes
Unite. Begins final revisions on
Kant’s Metaethics: First Critique Foundations of His Theory of Action. Reads
Hitler’s
Mein
Kampf. Reads Muhammad Yunus’
Banker to the Poor. Attends sixth Gesellschaft
für Analytische Philosophie
Kongreß at the Freie Universität Berlin.
Notifies MCAD of decision not to return to
continuing hostile environment at Wellesley.
MCAD “resends” notification of September
2005
dismissal of charges.
Requests Substantial Weight Review of case by U. S. Employment
Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Delivers keynote address,
“Criticizing the Critics” at Frieze Art Fair, London. On U.S.
lecture tour, delivers “Passing Beyond Passing,” “The Ideal of
Agent Integrity,” and “Why Shiva Dances” in Austin, Santa Fe,
Minneapolis, and Bloomington,
discovers name on
U.S.
Transportation
Security Administration’s Suspicious Traveler (SSSS) Watch List.
Returns to Berlin,
notifies Wellesley College of SSSS
List
and
requests indefinite leave of absence.
College denies request,
threatens termination of employment as tenured full professor.
Photo credit: Heidi Träbert
2007 EEOC upholds MCAD’s dismissal of charges. Piper
goes on retreat at Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, tours Kolkata,
West Bengal and Orissa with Royal Danish Academy of Art students.
Medical tests confirm regenerated liver, remission of AS symptoms.
Piper performs
Adrian Moves to Berlin at Berlin
Alexanderplatz. Sol LeWitt dies of cancer. Delivers Marie
Jahoda Guest Professorship Lectures, “Das Ideal der
Integrität des Akteurs” and “Dokumente aus den
Staaten” at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
Does Lynn Lukkas Interview for her
Telling Time video project. Executes wall
drawing,
Hi Sol, for Cairn Gallery tribute exhibition to Sol
LeWitt,
Irrational Thoughts, in Pittenweem, Fife, Scotland.
College offers Piper the choice of either taking early retirement
and “releasing and discharging Wellesley College and all
those connected with it from any and all rights and claims that
[she] may have had in the past, now have or might now have as of
this date in connection with [her] employment at the
College,” or else being fired from tenured full
professorship. Piper refuses to return to U.S. while on Suspicious
Travelers’ Watch List, refuses early retirement offer,
refuses to resign position. AAUP again refuses to investigate.
Piper finds
Barbie Doll Drawings (1967). Finishes
The Spurious
Life-Death Distinction. Obtains German private health and
long-term care insurance. Delivers keynote address,
“’On Wearing Three Hats’ ein Jahrzehnt
später” at Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst
Symposium,
Multitasking: Synchronität als kulturelle
Praxis. Posts time-based media clips at website.
2008 The College’s new
President recommends
termination of Piper’s tenured full professorship to Board of Trustees.
Piper opens solo exhibition,
Everything, at Elizabeth Dee Gallery
in New York
in absentia. Scans close to 1,000 family photos from
family archive. Cambridge University Press formally accepts both
Rationality and the
Structure of the Self, Volume I: The Humean Conception and also
Rationality and the Structure of the Self, Volume II: A Kantian
Conception for publication. Piper goes on several retreats at
Vedanta-Gesellschaft, Bindeweide.
College Board of
Photo credit: Albert Landau
Trustees terminates Piper’s
tenured
full professorship in philosophy.
AAUP again refuses to investigate.
Cambridge University Press reneges on written agreement to demand
no further cuts in
Rationality
and the Structure of the Self. Piper
refuses to sign contract and instead publishes both volumes gratis
at APRA website. The North American Kant Society quarterly newsletter
announces its online publication. Piper advertises it in
The Proceedings of the
American Philosophical Association,
The Journal of Philosophy,
The
Philosophical Review,
Mind,
Ethics,
Political
Theory,
The European Journal of Philosophy,
Economics and
Philosophy, and the Philosophy in
Europe E-List. The United Kingdom Kant Society announces it at its website.
Delivers “Zwei Ideale rationaler
Motivation” at Leibniz-Universität Hannover. Does Visiting
Residency at Paul Klee Sommerakademie in Bern, Switzerland.
Attends Kant-Gesellschaft conference on Transcendental Illusion in
Frankfurt, United Kingdom Kant Society conference on Space and Time
at the University of Sussex. Produces
Everything #19.3: New York
Times Portrait of Megan Williams for
Farimani magazine. Goes OUT TO
LUNCH for entire month of September, begins memoir, makes it to 60th birthday,
goes dancing at ACUD to
celebrate. Ginger dies of kidney failure. Posts
“Decision-Theoretic
Legitimacy for Market Regulation” on Philosophy in Europe E-List,
deals with fall-out. Delivers “Conceptual Art and Intellectual
Intuition” at Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki. Completes
full draft of memoir,
Escape to Berlin.
Photo credit: Lynn Lukkas
2009 Piper successfully
renews passport.
Dawn Chan
Artforum interview about Rationality and the Structure of the Self appears.
Posts
“Academic Rankings” on Philosophy in Europe E-List,
deals with fall-out. Delivers “Kant’s Transcendental
Analysis of Action” at Manchester Metropolitan
University’s
Transcendental Philosophy conference,
Manchester, UK. Does Lynn Lukkas follow-up interview for
Telling
Time. Attends decision theory & logic workshops at London
School of Economics, HEC Lausanne, Switzerland and University of
Groningen, Netherlands. Exhibits artwork at Elizabeth Dee Gallery,
Galeria Emi Fontana, and Galerie Christian Nagel booths at Art
Basel. Premieres installation,
Everything #5.2 (2004) at
IN TRANSIT, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. Chairs
session at UK Kant Society Conference on Morality & Society,
University of Lancaster, UK; attends Kant-Gesellschaft conference
on the Regulative Ideas, in Frankfurt.
Begins
Vanishing Point drawing and installation series.
Discovers Paolo Conte. Reads Toqueville.
Finishes
Bait-and-Switch, exhibits the complete
PacMan Trilogy at
Berlin Akademie der Künste ABC Art Contemporary and 11
Drawings
About Paper, Writing About Words (1967) at Materialien
exhibition at Münzsalon. Rereads Hermann Hesse’s
Magister Ludi
[
das Glasperlenspiel]. First and only critical notice of
Rationality and the
Structure of the Self appears in December
Artforum’s Best Books
section. Launches APRA Foundation Berlin. Within three hours of posting
Foundation page at website, receives phone call and e-mail messages
from The College requesting meeting in Berlin.
2010 Piper reorganizes archive. Presents APRA Foundation Berlin at Berliner
Senatskanzlei Empfang für Neustifter. Robert del Principe does
Rationality and the Structure of the Self video interview.
Discovers the ostdeutscher Schäferhund.
Delivers
“Practical Action: First
Critique Foundations” at International
Kant Congress 2010 in Pisa. Announces release of
Rationality and
the Structure of the Self as two single-file PDF documents.
Taken to visit Dresden by neighbor. Chairs session at annual UK
Kant Society Conference, Oxford.
Publishes “Style and the Paradox of Minimalism” in
Artforum.
Applies for and is granted permanent residency permit in Germany.
Exhibits historical work at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, and
new work,
Everything #21, at Cairn Gallery, Pittenweem, Fife,
Scotland. Delivers “Kant’s Self-Legislation Procedure Reconsidered” at the
University
of Keele, UK.
Photo credit: Mareike Dittmer
2011
Piper again receives e-mail message from The College, now requesting web access to "documented
lawsuit" against The College and
Personal Report. Delivers "Kant's Self-Legislation
Procedure Reconsidered" to King's College London Philosophy Department. Announces first
APRA Foundation Berlin Multi-Disciplinary
Fellow. Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana (left side), Marichyasana D, Baddha Konasana,
Baddha Padmasana, Urdhva Padmasana, Pindasana,
self-invented Herniasana are
taken away by torn left medial meniscus, then gradually restored, on loan from Shiva. Develops peer
review publication web application that reconciles anti-plagiarism policy with blind submission/
double-blind review procedure, conceives and launches
The
Berlin Journal of Philosophy , announces both on Philosophy in
Europe
e-list and offers web application to other philosophy journals. None accept it. Sued by disgruntled
former Director. Delivers "Kant's Two Replies to Hobbes" to first plenary session of the
UK
Kant Society Annual Conference. Piper discovers that entire Archive staff has been working at APRA
under
false pretenses with fraudulent contracts, endangering its legal and financial standing; all resign.
Advised that this form of work fraud is usual and protected under German law. Closes Archive. Title
of
Professor Emeritus conferred by American Philosophical Association. Posts
Contracts & Contempt at website. Hearing in
right ear taken away, then gradually restored, on loan from Shiva.
Photo credit: Adrian Piper
2012 Second APRA Foundation Berlin Multi-Disciplinary Fellow rejects funding and cancels
awarded
project. Piper reads
Stellungnahme zu dem Beschluß des Landesgerichts Berlin
aloud at second lawsuit court hearing; judge agrees not to apply statutes protecting work fraud.
Wins
College Art Association 2012 Artist Award for a Distinguished Body of Work, for having “since the
late
1960s … profoundly influenced the language and form of Conceptual art.” Establishes the APRA
Foundation
Berlin Graduate Student Teaching Scholarship in Philosophy at the University of Keele, UK. Resolves
to
stop doing Kapotasana, Mukta Hasta Shirshana to protect neck vertebrae. Confronts habituation to
Kapotasana, Mukta Hasta Shirshana, inability to stop doing them absentmindedly. Delivers three
lectures,
The Connection between Truth and Goodness: Explorations in Kant’s Metaethics to the Zentrum
für
Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe. Discovers Falco. Delivers “On the Very Idea of Artistic
Research” to the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford University at the
Art as a Mode
of
Inquiry conference. Reopens Archive. Article, “Kant’s Two Solutions to the Free Rider
Problem,”
published in
The Kant Yearbook 4/2012: Kant and Contemporary Moral Philosophy. At third
lawsuit
hearing, interrogates plaintiff; court settles case favorably to APRA. Presents
Rationality and
the
Structure of the Self, Volume II: A Kantian Conception, “Chapter III. The Concept of a
Genuine
Preference” at Workshop,
Kant und Hegel über Logik und Ontologie, University of Potsdam.
Discovers Max Raabe. For 64th birthday, decides to retire from being black. Creates
Thwarted
Projects, Dashed Hopes, A Moment of Embarrassment (2012)
and announces new racial and nationality designations at
website.
Resumes studying Sanskrit in earnest. Learns Yoga Sutra I.1-12 by heart. Publishes “Kant’s
Self-Legislation Procedure Reconsidered” in
Kant Studies Online 2, 4 (October 2012). Attends
first Sonnenwendefest.
Photography by Jason Schmidt
2013 Piper publishes
Philosophy Journal Paper Submission Policies at
The
Berlin Journal of Philosophy website. Publishes second edition of
Rationality and the Structure of the Self at website.
Creates
The Probable Trust Registry. Reads Riane Eisler’s
The Chalice and the Blade.
Undergoes knee surgery for torn left meniscus and damaged cartilage. Gives up
Herniasana for
good. Starts twice weekly fitness training. Turns into a fitness jock. Delivers “On the Very Idea of
Artistic Research” at (SIC) Brussels. Posts
Adrian Piper Video Interview: Rationality and the Structure of
the
Self at website, YouTube and Vimeo; advertises 2
nd Edition of
Rationality
and the Structure of the Self in
The New York Review of Books and
The Times
Literary
Supplement; sends it out for review to
The Journal of Philosophy,
The
Philosophical
Review,
Ethics,
The European Journal of Philosophy,
Mind,
Analysis,
Philosophy
and Public Affairs,
Economics and Philosophy,
The London Review of Books,
The
New York Times Book Review,
The Economist, none acknowledge receipt.
Composes Saraswati bhajan. Attends Annual UKKS Conference. Delivers the Empson Lecture, “The Real
Thing
Strange” to the British Society of Aesthetics at Cambridge University. “Practical Action: First
Critique
Foundations” published in
Kant und die Philosophie in Weltbürgerlicher Absicht: Akten des XI.
Internationalen Kant-Kongreßes 2010, Herausg. Stefano Bacin, Alfredo Ferrarin, Claudio
LaRocca,
und Margit Ruffing (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2013). Delivers the Rousseau Lecture, “Playing By the
Rules I,” to the University of Keele and “Playing By the Rules II,” to the University of Keele
Annual
Philosophical Research Forum Conference,
Playing By the Rules. Ned McClennen dies; invited to
write
memorial tribute for
Critical
Inquiry. Requests deletion of name from APA e-mail list soliciting donations for “Diversity
and
Inclusiveness Initiatives.” APA Executive Director “take[s] the liberty” of deleting Piper’s
name
from APA general e-mail list. Cancels APA membership. Attends second Sonnenwendefest. Learns Yoga
Sutras
I.13-35 by heart. Publicly announces New Year’s resolution to finish
Kant’s Metaethics: First
Critique Foundations on Philos-L listserv.
Photo credit: Kate Moran
2014 Piper publishes updated
Philosophy Journal Paper Submission Policies at
The Berlin Journal of
Philosophy website. Awarded Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA) Lifetime Achievement Award for
“distinguished work as a philosopher and conceptual artist.” Delivers “Lessons from the Playbook of
Second Wave Feminism” to the National Academy of Art, Oslo. Premieres video
lecture/screening/discussion,
Passing
Beyond
Passing (2004), at IHME Days Festival in Helsinki. Posts
“The
Money Pump is Necessarily Diachronic” at APRA Philosophy page and PhilPapers.org. Creates
Everything #24 for 8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale; makes first trip to China. Delivers
“Playing
by the Rules I: Two- or More-Person Games” at Shenzhen OCAT Library. Premieres
The Probable Trust
Registry at the Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York. Delivers “The Logic of Kant’s
Categorical ‘Imperative’” at the St. Andrews University Workshop, Kant & Schopenhauer /Ethics
&
Aesthetics. Receives and accepts invitation from Museum of Modern Art, New York to do comprehensive
travelling retrospective, to open in 2018. Learns Yoga Sutras I.36-51, II.1-12 by heart. Attends
annual
UK Kant Society Conference at Oxford. Delivers “Second-Wave Feminism: Unfinished Business,” at the
University of Hull.
Photo credit: Adrian Piper
2015 Piper announces gratis availability of
Imagine [Trayvon Martin] (2013) at
ART page on E-ArtNow. Publishes updated
Philosophy Journal Paper Submission Policies at
The Berlin Journal of
Philosophy website, deals with fallout. Delivers “Playing by the Rules I: Two- or
More-Person
Games,” at Bard College Berlin. Posts the
Mad Dog Referee Reports Anonymous Survey at
The
Berlin
Journal of Philosophy website. Exhibits
The Probable Trust Registry and selection of
Everything works at Venice Biennale;
receives Golden Lion Award for Best Artist. Delivers Commencement Address,
“Playing
by the Rules II: One-Person Games” at Bard College Berlin, “Zwei Ideale Rationaler Motivation” at
University of Potsdam Philosophy Department, and “The Logic of Kant’s Categorical ‘Imperative’” at
the
11th Kant Congress 2015, University of Vienna. Kali dies of liver failure. Creates digital light
projection,
Self-Portrait with Shiva Ardhanarishvara. Learns Yoga Sutras 11.13-48 by heart.
Photo credit: Fotofix
2016 Piper decides to forego participation in further philosophy conferences while working on
MoMA retrospective. Premieres exhibition of
The Barbie Doll Drawings in “Drawing Then:
Innovation
and Influence in American Drawing of the Sixties” at the Dominique Lévy Gallery. Exhibits
Howdy
and
Everything #5.1 in 9th Berlin Biennale,
Funk Lessons in Manifesta 11, and
My
Calling
(Card) #3: Guerrilla Performance for Disputed Territorial Skirmishes at Museum der Moderne
Salzburg Collections Show. Completes manuscript,
Escape to Berlin: A Travel Memoir, begins
publication production process. Streamlines asana practice. Immediately injures back, gives up Supta
Kurmasana. Multiple intimations of her mortality cause in Piper an obsessive-compulsive addiction to
genealogical research on her family that threatens to engulf her life and work. Tries to make peace
with
it by creating
Never Forget. Reads all the slave narratives she has been stockpiling in her
library for decades. Discovers Cat’s Claw herbal tea, back pain disappears, gradually recovers Supta
Kurmasana. Places
The Probable Trust Registry with the Nationalgalerie Berlin, begins work on
its
exhibition premiere at the Hamburger Bahnhof in 2017. Creates
President Bandersnatch
(with thanks to Lewis Carroll and John Tenniel) for
Grey Room magazine to commemorate
election of
Donald Trump to U.S. Presidency. Learns of Bob Dylan’s refusal to attend the Nobel Prize award
ceremony
in Oslo to receive his Nobel Prize in Literature. Piper decides to make no further public
appearances.
Takes enforced holiday vacation: IT system crashes, loses computer and email access for a month.
Simultaneously Piper also crashes: gets really bad flu virus, incapacitated for a month + rehab
time.
Reads history and sociology of American society, European history, ancient and medieval history
while
recovering from burnout. Finds and reads Great Aunt Ruby’s wonderful Hunter College undergraduate
textbook,
The History of Medieval Europe by Lynn Thorndike (Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside
Press,
1917; second edition Houghton Mifflin 1928). Learns Yoga Sutras II.48-III.24 by heart.
2017 Piper exhibits
The Probable Trust Registry at the Hamburger Bahnhof,
Nationalgalerie Berlin. Completes legal restructuring of APRA Foundation Berlin. Finalizes will.
Progressively neglects more and more of yoga practice as deadline pressures for MoMA retrospective
increase. Convinces the Berlin city housing construction department to mention some experienced
and competent architectural firms able to complete renovation of house. Receives
honorary Doctor of Arts from NSCAD University. Honored by Artists Space, New York. Inivited to join
National Academy of Art. Signs contract with Central Books Ltd. for
distribution of APRA Foundation Berlin print publications. Grieves death at the age of 48,
after twelve years of tenure in the Princeton Philosophy Department, of Delia Graff Fara.
Grieves death at age 40, after nine years of tenure in the Stanford Mathematics Department,
of Maryam Mirzakhani. Discontinues APRA Foundation Berlin Graduate Student Teaching Scholarship in
Philosophy at Keele University. Discovers Christopher Dawson’s
Medieval Essays in parents’
library. Exhibits
It’s Just Art
(1980) and
Here (2008-2015) at Lévy Gorvy, New York. Writes up “Consistency as
Non-Contradiction
in Rational Choice Theory.” Establishes
The Order of Celestial Laughter (2017). Begins work
on final chapter of
Kant’s Metaethics: First Critique Foundations of His Theory of Action.
Discovers Johann Huizinga’s
The Waning of the Middle Ages in parents’ library. Sacrifices
yoga
practice to preparations for MoMA retrospective and publication of
Escape to Berlin.
Reads Ian Mortimer’s
The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England. Learns Yoga Sutras
III.25-IV.1 by heart.
2019 APRA forced to vacate Archive space several months before renovation of
APRA’s permanent home is scheduled to be completed, and to place all contents of
Archive in temporary storage. Archive closed to visitors until after relocation into
permanent home. Takes the year off from public engagements. Okwui Enwezor dies of
cancer. Views Rezo’s video,
Die Zerstörung der CDU many times and regains hope for
the future of the human race (briefly). Spends three weeks being treated for exhaustion
at an Ayurvedic clinic in northern Bavaria. Embarks on cover-to-cover study of Edward
Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Selectively resumes giving interviews, in
email form only. Turns down four philosophy lecture invitations in a row and draws the
obvious conclusion. Coins and defines the term,
racial essentialism. Conceptualizes
Wahlkampagne. Learns Yoga Sutras IV.15-IV.34 by heart. Finds mantra in IV.25-26.
Writes up
"Philosophy
En Route to Reality: A Bumpy Ride" by invitation from
The
Journal of World Philosophies . Formally submits construction application to city
authorities for the renovation of APRA’s permanent home. Publishes letter to the editor,
“Re.: ‘Special Report: Women’s Place in the Art World’,” in
Artnet News. Jörg Heiser
review of Escape to Berlin appears in
E-Flux Journal. First meeting of APRA team with APRA’s
future Board of Trustees.
2020 APRA takes over book distribution of
Escape to Berlin from Central Books. Begins
research for and production of
Wahlkampagne. Discontinues The
Berlin Journal of Philosophy,
except
for annual survey of philosophy journal paper submission policies. David Velasco performs “David
Velasco
teaches Adrian Piper’s
Funk Lessons” at the Museum MMK für moderne Kunst Frankfurt, to rave
reviews. 20 years of archived APRA website activity statistics mysteriously and irretrievably
erased.
Sees Jennifer Fox film,
The Tale; embarks on extended journey of introspection and research.
Corona Virus surfaces in European awareness. All
commitments
Photo credit: Adrian Piper
on hold. Moves entire contents of apartment into a temporary apartment for six weeks while building
is
being renovated, then moves back. Then moves into a hotel for two weeks to escape poisonous fumes
from
renovation construction glue,
then moves back. Kunsthal Trondheim commissions
Everything #28. Does
interview, “Adrian Piper
in
conversation with Lauren O’Neill-Butler,” for first issue of November. Nominated by
CHD
Artmaker for the public art commission for the Memorial in the Tuileries Gardens to the Victims of
Slavery. Best friend Rob Rubin dies of complications from multiple myeloma.