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Collage of five diverse artworks from the Hammer Museum Collections side by side. From left to right: 1) Contemporary painting of two embracing figures with surreal elements. 2) Post-impressionist style painting of trees with vibrant blues and greens. 3) Black and white illustration of a face with intricate patterns. 4) Japanese woodblock print style image of a figure in a checkered robe. 5) Photograph of a couple dancing, the woman in a black dress and the man in white

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Digital Archive Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology
Art Adrian Piper, This Is Not the Documentation of a Performance
This Is Not the Documentation of a Performance, by Adrian Piper, 1976

Adrian Piper, Artist
This Is Not the Documentation of a Performance , 1976

Medium
Silk-screened newspaper article with altered photograph and text
Dimensions
49 x 45 in. (124.5 x 114.3 cm) (framed)
Credit Line
Collection of the Adrian Piper Research Archive Foundation Berlin. © APRA Foundation Berlin

Adrian Piper made this work by re-photographing a newspaper article about a protest against the eviction of Hispanic families from a Manhattan building and replacing the text of one of the picketers' signs with "This Is Not a Performance." It is a subtle rebuke to those who dismissed her earlier performances—in which she altered her appearance in various ways to expose xenophobia—as fictions, as well as to those who continued to turn a blind eye to racism as it relates to gentrification and urban life.