It Doesn't Matter #1-3

Adrian Piper, artist

born 1948

It Doesn't Matter #1-3, 1975

Portfolio/Series title: The Mythic Being

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: gelatin silver print; crayon

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 24 x 15.9 cm each
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 25.4 x 20.32 cm each
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 9 7/16 x 6 1/4 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 10 x 8 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 36 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 20 3/8 x 36 3/8 x 1 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Helen Foresmen Spencer Art Acquisition Fund

Accession number: 2000.0145.a,b,c

Not on display

Add to portfolio

If you wish to reproduce this image, please submit an image request

Images

Label texts

It Doesn't Matter is a photograph-based work from Piper’s series The Mythic Being. For this series, Piper, an African American woman, donned an Afro wig and a moustache, assuming the persona of an angry, young, urban, black male. Thus attired, she would go to public spaces and experience responses to this contested character, attempting to address the stereotypes surrounding young African American men. The aggressive physical stance, the macho appearance, and the strong wording of the text combine to create an intimidating character, reinforcing white society’s fears of the black male. By crossing gender boundaries, however, Piper attempts to subvert the patriarchal position, asserting a powerful voice and character normally reserved for the males in our society.
Susan Earle, Curator of European and American Art

Exhibition Label:
"xy," Jun-2009, Kris Ercums
It Doesn't Matter is a photograph-based work from Piper’s series The Mythic Being. For this series, Piper, an African American woman, donned an Afro wig and a moustache, assuming the persona of an angry, young, urban black male. Thus attired, she would go to public spaces and experience responses to this contested character, attempting to address the stereotypes surrounding young African American men. The aggressive physical stance, the macho appearance, and the strong wording of the text combine to create an intimidating character, reinforcing white society’s fears of the black male. By crossing gender boundaries, however, Piper attempts to subvert the patriarchal position, asserting a powerful voice and character normally reserved for the males in our society.
Susan Earle, Curator of European and American Art

Archive Label 2003:
When looking at the work consider the atmosphere of the person’s environment, the gender and racial identity of the person, the use of text in relationship to the image, and the viewer’s relationship with the work.

Piper presents a triptych of three images that is read and viewed from left to right. She places the individual in the work at a distance from the viewer in the first panel and then above the viewer’s point of view in the second and third panels.

• Look at how the person slowly emerges from a dark background. How does Piper get the viewer’s attention in the first panel?

• What kind of atmosphere has Piper created?

• What is the gender of the person in the work?

• Is it a female or a male? How can you tell?
What is the racial or ethnic identity of the person in the work? Is the person Caucasian or African-American? How can you tell?

• Is the viewer a passive or active observer?

Adrian Piper was born in the same decade that Elizabeth Catlett was beginning her career as an artist. Piper’s work is layered in different meanings and conceptual ideas. It Doesn’t Matter addresses issues of gender and racial identity and how individuals interact, or not, with others based on these identities. Piper, who earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Harvard, draws on her experience of having a racially diverse background and of being subjected to racist comments early in her life from both whites and blacks who wrongly assumed her racial identity. Piper also addresses gender stereotypes in It Doesn’t Matter by dressing as a man in the photograph and manipulating the image with an overlay of crayon markings on the surface of the print. Her work challenges and exposes the different ways in which racial and gender stereotyping is manifested.