Body Type I & II Pencil Drawing on Paper. 3ft by 4ft each. June 1982

Body Types 1 and 2 were made in the year following the Black Art An' Done exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, in which Piper exhibited as a student.
Like many of his works of this period, this pair of drawings combines images and text. The black male and female figures are presented naked and with only part of their heads visible, suggesting an incomplete identity. The text around each of the figures describes notions of fear and desire. The portraits explore power relationships and the objectification of the black body– themes that were to recur in Piper’s work over the following decades.