On Saturday, June 4, 2022, Adrian Piper’s performance Whistleblower Catalysis (1971) was restaged at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum at the exhibition opening for 52 Artists: A Feminist Milestone.
This was the first time it has been performed since its debut at the Museum’s 1971 exhibition Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists, curated by Lucy R. Lippard. The recent performance at The Aldrich included six performers dressed to blend in with the attendees of the exhibition opening who moved within the gallery spaces and outside to the Museum’s front terrace, blowing artist-selected whistles with each breath. The first written documentation of Piper’s Catalysis series was published by the artist in the exhibition catalogue for Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists.
For the 1971 exhibition, Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists, Piper staged the performance of Whistleblower Catalysis at the opening which consisted of the artist and two others circulating the galleries with police whistles in their mouths. With each breath they took, the whistles would sound. This performance at The Aldrich was part of Piper's iconic Catalysis series of unannounced, conceptual actions. The term catalysis refers to a chemical process in which the result is influenced by the presence of a substance or material that accelerates or induces a significant change.
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