Eric Piper Eric Piper

Alicia Smith

What have you been involved in over the last few years?

 I graduated with my masters in 2018 from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. I went in a printmaker and sculptor and left a video and performance artist. It had an enormously liberating impact on me and connected me with more artists, gallerists and curators whose work I believe in and who believe in my work. I went to Standing Rock, marched with Indigenous Women at the Women's March, being with my relatives always makes me feel so seen and understood and informs my work a lot. 

What have you been up to lately/this year?

This year I had the honor of showing my piece "I Believe You" at AIR gallery in NYC, first ever feminist art gallery in the country and once home to artists like Ana Mendieta, Nancy Spero and Agnes Denes who I admire greatly. The show was curated by Carmen Hermo from the Brooklyn Museum of Art who is incredible. I also showed at an SVA Alumni show called "Believing You" (title inspired by the piece) curated by the great Risa Puleo and I have a show coming up this summer at Ellsworth Gallery in Santa Fe curated by Kirsten Fellrath.

Right now Im doing a lot of research and making arrangements to shoot my next piece "Hueatoyatzin" about the Rio Grande and immigration which I cant wait for people to see. It’s my first year to have a full garden, Im growing pre-contact Aztec Black Corn and Prince's Feather Amaranth among other traditional foods. I feel like I've learned more about myself from the corn than maybe anything else and Im honored to be their steward. 

What are you looking to get into in the future?

Every decision I've made for almost the last decade is in furtherance of my dream to have an artist residency and homestead. A place where people can eat good healthy food, in safety and security and produce the work that needs to be made in the wake of the anthropocene and white-supremacist patriarchy. It has felt like a kind of Sisyphean task but I think I've finally realized that I have made some real headway. Especially in the last few years. I don't know how much longer it will be but "You put your hand to the plow, you finish the row". 

Conscious Goals?

Right now I need to record the song I wrote for Huatoyatzin and get in touch with the guy is going to pierce my back haha that's a teaser.

What type of art/creative scenes have you been involved with?

I feel like Im kind of all over the place. I mostly just want to be around people who are doing the work with integrity and are people I might want to have at the homestead for supper some day. In New York you meet a lot of "networkers" and that kind of extractive relationship just makes me very uncomfortable, I prefer community building. I always come back to my printmaking family though for sure. 

Influences?

So so many. Ana Mendieta, Frida Kahlo, Rebecca Belmore, Swoon, Monica Canilao, Merritt Johnson, Meryl McMaster, Daniela Riojas everything Rebecca Solnit, Emily Johnson, Eve Tuck, Gloria Anzaldua have written. I LOVE Andrew Thomas Huang. As I get more into performance I've become obsessed with Pina Bausch, Alan Lake, Daina Ashbee I just think people who can think with their bodies like that are absolutely incredible. 

Hopes and fears?

I sincerely hope that I can have the residency started within the next 5 years, in however small iteration it has to take first. Im terrified that the planet is dying and that our choice in November is between a Sociopath and a Centrist who don't give a damn about the planet we are leaving to our children. The residency is kind of an ark to me. An ark of sacred knowledge. Art is sacred. 

Anything else?

Black Lives Matter. 

Fuck 12. 

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