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The early 1980s was characterised by the expansion of networks involving black artists from around the country, who may have previously been invisible to each other.
In 1982, the BLK Art Group organised the 'First National Black Art Convention' held at The Polytechnic Wolverhampton. Contacts had already been made with veteran artist and activist Rasheed Araeen, London based artist Lubaina Himid and Shaka Dedi, director of the soon to be opened Black Art Gallery, all of whom presented papers at the Convention. In the audience came first meetings with young London based artist Sonia Boyce, Brenda Agard and members of the Black Audio Film Collective. Also in the audience was Frank Bowling, already a foundational figure both in the history of British Art and discourses around black art and abstraction in the USA.
A plenary session called in response to Claudette Johnson's presentation to the conference is often cited as a key moment in forging the evolution of black women's creative practices that would emerge as a powerful strand of practice throughout the 1980's and beyond. (An audio recording of The Convention, Claudette Johnson’s presentation and the discussion that followed can be found here.)
Although the BLK Art group would only continue for another two years, a range of practices, which would later begin to be characterised (perhaps problematically) as a ‘Black Art Movement' began to emerge through the decade within the practice of a growing number of young artists of African Afro Caribbean and South Asian descent. These artists were supported through a range of shared social spaces, and through the curatorial energies of a artist/activists such as Lubaina Himid, Rasheed Araeen, Joseph Olubu, Gavin Jantjes, Eddie Chambers and the space which became the ‘Black Art Gallery’ directed first by Shakka Dedi and later by Marlene Smith. It was also supported through the slow, hard fought and painstaking opening up of public institutions and funding structures in response to these new practices throughout the decade.
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Piper's practice continued to develop through the 1980s. Having completed his undergraduate degree at Trent Polytechnic in 1983, he moved to London to undertake an MA in Environmental Media at the Royal College of Art (RCA) between 1984 and 1986. This period saw Piper staging his first solo show entitled 'Past Imperfect, Future Tense' at the Black Art Gallery, Finsbury Park, London in June 1984.
During the 1980s, Pipers work would develop from a largely painting, collage and print based practice, seen during the BLK Art Group shows, to an increasing use of mixed media and installation, often utilising technology based elements.
During his undergraduate degree show at Trent Polytechnic in 1983 he was to use a combination of projected film loop, audio and sculpture for the first time within his practice within the installation work ‘Say Nothing’. This integration of media would go on to characterise his practice during his MA studies at the RCA.
Towards the end of the 1980s, Pipers exploration into the use of analogue recording, reprographic and photographic technologies would be supplemented by the arrival of the first wave of affordable computers with capabilities that could be utilised by visual artists. Becoming increasingly involved in the use of the low cost Amiga computer system as a means of generating and montaging animation, still imagery and sound, Piper began to generate a jagged 'cut & paste' multi layered aesthetic which would come to characterise his practice of the period into the 1990s. (This use of the Amiga is further explored in the blog ‘A Glitched Practice pt1 & pt2.)
An example of this Amiga based 'cut & paste' aesthetic can be seen in the animation ‘Surveillances' (Tagging the Other) produced in 1992 in response to issues arising in the run up to the instigation of a ‘Single European Market’ in 1992 and it’s implications in respect of the movement of non white peoples into and around the Continent.
This, and other research orientated projects aimed to explore historical legacies and their power to shape our perceptions of racial difference within a range of arenas, from sport, to religion, to the recounting of history and the impact of new technologies. During the first half of the 1990s, Piper used these themes to move his practice forward through a series of international venues and interventions .
When approached by InIVA (the Institute of International Visual Art) in the mid 1990s to stage a 'mid career' retrospective, Piper suggested a 'virtual' rather than actual representation of past work through a series of interactive installations and virtual gallery spaces on a CD-Rom. (This project is explored further in the blog ‘how the futurist archive become archaic’).
This project evolved into 'Relocating the Remains', an exhibition that toured to venues in the UK and USA from 1997 – 1999, and a monograph published by InIVA featuring an in-depth essay by Kobena Mercer entitled ‘Witness at the crossroads: An Artist’s Journey in Post-Colonial Space’.
During this period some of the principal aims of the earlier 'black arts movement' around the visibility of the practice of black artists and their integration into the main stream of contemporary arts practice were in part realised through the historic successes of members of a younger generation of Black Artists with the awarding of the Turner Prize to Chris Ofili in 1998, and Steve McQueen in 1999.
In the year 2000 Piper performed a partial career shift taking up an Assistant Professors post in Electronic Media in the School of Fine Art at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA. In 2003 he returned to the United Kingdom to take up a Principal Lecturers position in Media Production in the School of Cultural and Innovation Studies at the University of East London. In 2006 he took up a Readership in Fine Art and Digital Media at Middlesex University, London where he continues to teach.