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Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit, 1971

Description

Maker

  • Adrian Piper, b. 1948, American

Title

Food for the Spirit

Year

1971

Medium

Selenium-toned gelatin silver print

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • selenium toned silver print

Supports

  • fiber based photographic paper

Dimensions

Plate: 36.9 x 37.5 cm (14 1/2 x 14 3/4 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

On verso: signed and dedicated "to Barbara"

Identification

State

Printer's set

Type

  • Works on Paper,
  • Photographs

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

2000.97.2

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Defying the Shadow

December 1, 2020 - December 18, 2021

Bodies of Evidence

July 1 - September 25, 2005

Searching for a better understanding of her own relationship to the art object, the cultural sphere, and to the world in general, Piper also increasingly made herself the subject of her art. Food for the Spirit, a series of fourteen black-and-white self-portraits shot with a Brownie camera, would represent a turning point for the artist. At the time she began working on the piece, she was writing a graduate course paper on Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. She became “obsessed” with Kantian thought, fasting, practicing yoga, and isolating herself. Fearful that she was losing tough with the physical world – as if she was, in fact, evaporating into a Kantian state of pure reason – she searched for ways of corporeal reassurance. “I rigged up a camera and tape recorder next to [a] mirror,” Piper has written of the process of creating Food for Spirit, “so that every time the fear of losing myself overtook me and drove me to the ‘reality check’ of the mirror, I was able to both record my physical appearance objectively and also record myself on tape repeating the passage in Critique that was currently driving me to self-transcendence.”

Related

Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit, 1998

Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit, 1971

Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit, 1971

Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit, 1971

Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit, 1971

Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit, 1971

Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit, 1971

Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit, 1971

Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit, 1971

Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit, 1971

Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit, 1971

More objects +

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in Copyright. This object is Food for the Spirit with the accession number of 2000.97.2. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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