Cornered, but not surrounded
For women artists, a shift occured from the canvas to the real world. Performance art was not just a fad, but a reality. After all, women exist, and performance art examines how these women existed.
Adrian Piper took to the performance art with determination and talent. Her early series, Catalyst, examined the mundane occurences of the everyday people with the extraordinary. Her performances varied from her pretending to be male, repeating specific lines over and over, to her wearing a t-shirt freshly painted, with a sign attached "Wet Paint". The curiosity of her passerbys, their reactions and examinations of her provocation was the reward.
Adrian was not immune to the ever powerful flow of racism, however. Like Jones and Prophet before her, the concept of race and racism were still large factors in the lives of the black community. Her meta-narrative exhibit, Cornered (1988) examines this even further. A lengthy exhibit, it features chairs facing towards a color television. On the wall hangs her fathers birth certificates - one that says he his white, the other black. An overturned table faces the tv, cornering it in the exhibit.
Adrians message is one of examination - of the color of her skin, the justification of her race, and the calling out of the racism and bigotry that pervaded society.