Adrian Piper's performances

Adrian Piper's performances were reliant on camera for presentation.  The written accounts of her walking with a rag hanging out of her mouth or with a sign of "wet paint" do not get transmitted to the art world without the visual proof that the photos from a camera provide.  The verbal accounts of her productions or the written accounts do no justice to the actual pieces.  The photos provide real proof that she actually followed through with the actions and was out in public. 

The camera shows the viewer the true audacity of the piece.  No verbal or written account can provide an accurate understanding of what she looked like, where she was or the visual accuracy of how she looked.  The photos provide the proof that, for example, the rag in her mouth, whilst out in public, was not just a little sliver of a piece of fabric.  The size of the fabric is shown that she really did fill her mouth to the swollen cheek stage and that she would be obvious in the public arena.  The photos provide proof that she really did look weird in the context of every day life.  

If there were no photos of her performances, the public who happened upon her at those times would have just thought she was a person of imbalanced mind who needed to be avoided.  No account, except to family members, friends or acquaintances of the day would have found out about her performance and it would not be recorded in any artistic light.  Her performance would have not been successful as an art piece because those in the art world would not have found out about it.  It would have been passed off by those who saw her as another quirky thing in daily life, experienced but thankfully avoided except for the fleeting moment.  Piper needed the camera to record her acts for the future and for the acts to be remembered by anyone who can attach a label as artistic to her work and not just another freakish encounter.  Therefore Piper's performance was not for the camera, but its success relied on the camera capturing the moments.