Adrian Piper

Catalysis series, early 1970s Piper took performance out of the gallery and gave it an audience that never agreed to be one. She rode the bus, the subway and the Empire State Building elevator with a towel stuffed in her mouth, walked around in clothes soaked in vinegar, eggs, milk and cod liver oil, and wore freshly painted white clothes with a "Wet Paint" sign. Nobody was told it was art. The point was to test where strangers draw the lines of acceptable dress, sanity and public behavior, and to make the artist the object of their reactions. Later she pushed the idea further as the Mythic Being, a male alter ego in a wig and mustache. With no stage and no ticketed crowd, the series is known through photographs and Piper's own accounts.