The American artist and educator Pope. L has spent over four decades creating a searing body of work that tackles themes of race, social struggle, language, gender, and community through performance, painting, installation, video and sculpture. His output is by turns provocative, hard-hitting and absurd (in fact, he describes himself as “a fisherman of social absurdity”). L is best known for using his own body to “examine division and inequality” in America, to quote MoMA—as evidenced in this powerful 1995 performance, which sees the artist appearing to suffocate himself beneath a plastic bag.
