Abstract
This chapter approaches the artistic works of renowned New York-based performance artist Adrian Piper’s work through the lens of “psychedelic” performance, which performs a “queering” of consciousness. Using this approach, Deni(se) Li investigates how altered or expanded states of consciousness in performance can be read as “consciousness-raising” practices that address issues of gender, sexuality, and race. Drawing from José Esteban Muñoz’s concept of “disidentification,” Diana Taylor’s notions of the “archive” and “repertoire,” as well as embodied mind theories, Deni(se) Li explores how Piper’s performance art piece and multi-media self-portrait series, “Food for the Spirit” (1971) and “Mythic Being” (1973‒1975), perform psychedelic embodiment through an interplay between their psycho-spiritual and socio-political dimensions.
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Li, D. (2021). Adrian Piper’s Psychedelic Drag. In: Rosenberg, T., D'Urso, S., Winget, A.R. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Queer and Trans Feminisms in Contemporary Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69555-2_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69555-2_23
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