Keith Piper Unearthing the Banker’s Bones, 2015-16
Keith Piper Unearthing the Banker’s Bones, 2015-16
The act of discovery and research is at the heart of Keith
Exhibition specifications
In Unearthing the Banker’s Bones, Piper considers how
• This work is a 3-screen projection
the present can be viewed from the perspective of a
• Running time is 10 minutes • Two adjoining rooms are required:
a range of classical novels, films and music, including
with 2 vitrines.
• • •
one smaller one for showing the vitrines and a larger one for the film. The main entrance should be via the room with the vitrines. The screen size can be adapted to suit the space, however, it should be as large as possible in relation to the available space. Both rooms need to be painted dark grey. 3 pendant lights should be positioned above the vitrines. Invigilation is required.
Venue should supply: • A specialist AV technician for the installation • 3 HD projectors and 3 projection screens. The back screen should sit parallel to the wall and the two side screens should be angled inwards. • A more detailed technical specification is available on request. Crate dimensions are: 1/6: 123 x 181 x 99cm / 173kg (cased) 2/6: 134 x 140 x 91cm / 153kg (cased) 3/6: 120 x 75 x 67cm / 175kg (cased) 4/6: 28 x 60 x 40cm / 14kg (utz box) 5/6: 8 x 250 x 10cm / 15kg (soft wrapped) 6/6: dims to follow There is no hire fee for this project. As well as installation and deinstallation costs, we ask venues to cover insurance and transport costs.
Piper’s practice, and through this he investigates the history and culture of black identity.
fictional future. He weaves together references from science-fiction writer Octavia Butler, Gothic novelist Mary Shelley and the 1960s group The Last Poets, to consider the themes of environmental change, migration and globalisation. This time-travelling narrative is complemented by landscapes filmed around England. The work comprises 3 HD videos onto which Piper’s own sketches have been superimposed, accentuating the haunting tone of the work. The two vitrines, which accompany the films, are presented as if they contain historical artefacts. This ‘evidence’ is in the form of large books, which belong to the banker of the work’s title, onto which are placed sculptures of human bones. These relics provide clues to the interaction between the two protagonists: Trickster, an elusive shape-shifting android figure and the Banker, a profiteering slave dealer.
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