Head Hunter (After Broca) Keith Piper 2005 Installation

Piper’s Installation, entitled ‘Head Hunter’ (after Broca), explored themes around technologies of inspection and classification, hierarchies of knowledge and the reconstruction of lost faces.

During the development of this project Piper conducted research through discussions with Dr John Taylor of the Egyptology Department at the British Museum who has carried out leading research into the reconstruction of mummified faces, and Tim Valentine, Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths University who has conducted leading research into technologies of surveillance and facial recognition.

‘Making Faces’ was a Welcome Trust funded research project curated by the Norwich Contemporary Art Society. Within this project, three artists were selected and commissioned to develop bodies of work through discussion and collaboration with Scientists based in institutions around the country researching into issues around faces, their recognition and development. The three selected artists were Alexa Wright, Simon Tegal and Keith Piper. The Resultant installations were staged at the Forum Norwich as part of the British Association’s 2006 Festival of Science hosted by the University of East Anglia and Norwich Research Park, in partnership with the John Innes Centre, the teacher Scientist Network and the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts.

A Book ‘Making Faces’ (An exploration through Art and Science of the human face and the contemporary issues that surround it), by Professor Keith Roberts was published to coincide with the exhibition.