Donald Rodney in retrospect

To mark the tenth anniversary of the death of the Black British Artist Donald Rodney, a retrospective exhibition of his work was staged at the Institute of International Visual Art, curated by Piper in collaboration with the then InIVA director Sebastian Lopez. As a creative collaborator of Rodney’s from the early 1980s until his death in 1998 caused by complications due to Sickle Cell Anemia, Piper was well positioned gather together and appraise many of the key works of Rodney’s which were housed in public collections as well as those remaining within his estate. Piper was also called upon to conduct a review of the various writings, articles and reviews of Rodney’s work published to date; principally ‘Donald Rodney: Doublethink’, edited by Richard Hylton and published by Autograph and the catalogue for ‘9 Night in Eldorado’ Rodney’s final solo show, held at the South London Gallery in 1997. This was in the preparation for the InIVA Exhibition Guide for which Piper wrote the introduction, as well as the accompanying texts for each of the works in the exhibition1. The exhibition was accompanied by a calendar of events organized by Lopez and Piper. These included a Curators’ Gallery Talk by Lopez and Piper, and an in-conversation event chaired by Piper on the use of new technology within Rodney’s work with artists Mike Phillips and Geoff Cox. On the basis of this exhibition and the renewed interest which it reflected in Rodney’s work, he was declared ‘Artist of the Week’ by Jessica Lack in the Guardian of the 26th November 2008.