In Piper’s 1981 pencil drawing on paper, "Self-Portrait Exaggerating My Negroid Features," she really emphasizes her broad nose, full lips, and luxuriant Afro hairdo. Doing this helps her really exaggerate her African American features. Also, this portrait was originally placed right beside another of her works called “Self Portrait as a Nice White Lady.” In this attempt, Piper was really able to play up of the true features of her own heritage. The reason for her to make this portrait is because when she was younger she had a lot of trouble with identifying herself due to her bi-racial parents and her light skin. She decided to really indentify herself with African American people and that is what is being portrayed in this image.
I believe that Piper executed this portrait in a way that is very captivating and unambiguous. The portrait itself is fairly simple, just a black and white pencil drawing of herself staring straight forward. I believe that she intended her direct gaze in this drawing to emblematic of how her art confronts you. For example, this quote explains her approach to artwork and confrontation, “Her work is about consciousness-raising. Her primary subjects are race, racism and their links to class and gender. Her forms are spare, unsensual, but for the most part attention-holding. Her method is interrogatory: she asks unsettling questions to evoke revealing responses. Sugar-coating isn't her style.”
This piece of artwork by Adrian Piper reminds me of a piece by J.D. Hillberry called “The Man Behind the Artwork.” It is similar in both structure and subject matter. It is a self portrait that is also done in black and white pencil. J.D. is the main subject matter and he seems to be tearing through the piece of paper to stare the consumer right in the face. There is many emotions that are on the subjects face and it seems that he is facing the same kind of identification issues as Piper.
"Adrian Piper: A Canvas of Concerns -- Race, Racism and Class." Arizona State University. Web. 23 Nov. 2009.
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