Carter Kustera, Root of Influence/Verify Your Understanding, 1990

This curious performance piece is the work of Canadian artist Kevin Carter, who changed his name to Carter Kustera (and held a funeral for his former identity) in 1991. A year prior, he staged this surreal performance at Pat Hearn gallery in New York, plunging himself, suited and booted, into a water tank as part of a show dealing with race and culture. “While I was in the tank, I was being instructed by various language teachers, in several different languages, all at the same time,” he told Elephant. “An immersive tutelage.”