Adrian Piper’s Cornered was a 1988 video installation which had Piper discussing why the viewer may be black and asking what they would do about that realization. Piper claims that “this country’s [U.S.A.] entrenched conventions classify a person as black if they have any black ancestry” (184). Because most Americans due indeed have some black ancestry, most Americans are black. Underneath the video screen lies a table on its side with its bottom facing the audience, this seems to suggest that we, the audience, are all pushed under the table, a metaphor for disadvantaged peoples. Moreover, the even somber tone of Piper’s dialogue gives a serious mood to the work, causing the viewer to listen with a certain reverence. In closing the monologue she asks the viewer “What are we going to do?” about some people identifying themselves as black while others choose not to (186).
But what is Adrian Piper actually trying to say with this work? Is she trying to unify people under a belief of race being a social construction? Is she trying to reveal racist thoughts in the viewers by their reactions to her questioning? Piper does seem to exhibit both of these motivations. By pointing out that anyone could be black by having “between 5% and 20% black ancestry” she seems to take the “otherness” out of being black.(184) In contrast, she also seems to be trying to reveal racist attitudes by eliciting answers to questions. How would a white racist react to being identified as black? Whatever the message though it is clear that racial identity was a major motivation in this work.
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What is the blogs message? Casebere restates what the “Cornered: A Video Installation Project” stated. Is Casebere implying Piper believes this or is this her interpretation that “most Americans due indeed have some black ancestry, most Americans are black”? Piper does explicitely say this in the work, but the way Casebere presented the subject, confused me.
ReplyDeleteCaesbere asks pertinent and leading questions. When she questions if Piper is “trying to unify people under a belief of race being a social construction”, it allows her to answer the question using a plethora of sources. Or when she asks about pointing out the viewers racism, she could answer with a personal response. The reading made me uncomfortable. Especially when she asks “Perhaps you’ll narrate your European family history with great enthusiasm and detail at parties?” (Piper 184). My discomfort comes from the possibility of someone actually doing this and from the manner in which the accusation is made. She brings up racial identity at the end. She could have taken the idea of social construction and connected or disconnected it to the concept of racial identities.
Overall, the blog was bland and generic. There was not a clear argument and little to no analyzing was made. Even after dissecting the two paragraphs, I am still wondering, what is the blogs message?
Bibliography:
Kocur, Zoya and Simon Leung. Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985. Cornered: A Video Installation Project. Piper, Adrian. Print. Blackwell: Malden. 2005.