1. Interview
Adrian Piper
in conversation with Lauren O’Neill-Butler
“When living honorably is more important than staying alive, you’re ready to fight effectively for what you believe in.”
Interviews 1-10
Adrian Piper, Frank B. Wilderson III, Christopher K. Ho, Sarah Schulman, Nell Painter, Ruba Katrib, Mimi Thi Nguyen, Mark Wigley, Howardena Pindell, and Hal Foster.
November began as a project of ten interviews published from July to November 2020.
“When living honorably is more important than staying alive, you’re ready to fight effectively for what you believe in.”
“The essential antagonism is not between the workers and bosses but between the Humans and the Blacks.”
“The paradigmatic Hongkonger, especially from the generations between 1949 and 1997, is transnational and neoliberal.”
“Historically, queer women have been on the front lines of every progressive movement, but not always openly.”
“Things improving for old women artists is like things improving for Black Americans. Things improve. But things stay shitty.”
“The modern manifestation of the museum has its origins as a colonial and disciplining institution.”
“One mantra in particular strikes me in this moment—and it is from John Waters's Female Trouble—‘crime is beauty.’”
“Architecture is not about the wellbeing of humans at all. It doesn't simply house the human, it remakes the human.”
“There will be gradual changes in the art world, but the arts are often the last to change.”
“Even though I don't see criticism as art, I don't see it as secondary to art. I see it as a practice parallel to it.”