Peter Van Riper

Peter van Riper
Van Riper playing aluminium baseball bats, circa 1985

Peter van Riper (July 8, 1942 – November 18, 1998) was a sound and light environment artist, musician and pioneer of laser art and holography.

Van Riper was born in Detroit's Inner City, Michigan, the son of a psychoanalyst and an avid record collector. During the 1960s he received a B.A. Far Eastern History, and Art History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, graduated in Art History at Tokyo University, and took part in Fluxus performances and exhibitions in Japan. He later appeared on Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine #24 FluxTellus, Harvestworks, 1990, as part of an ensemble performing George Maciunas's Solo For Lips And Tongue. He collaborated with Fluxus members during exhibitions and performances, but Van Riper's influences are much wider. He is a true sound artist whose music is often inspired by Far Eastern traditions from Japan or Indonesia.

From 1967 to 1970, van Riper was a member of Editions Inc., an Ann Arbor, Michigan gallery of holography, animated along laser physicist Lloyd Cross and artist Jerry Pethick (1935–2003). In 1970 they organized an exhibition at the Cranbrook Academy, and at the Finch College Museum in New York. Both Cross and Pethick co-founded the School of Holography, San Francisco, California. Van Riper exhibited holograms during The Nature Of Light: Exploring Unconventional Photographic Techniques exhibition, Joyce Goldstein Gallery, New York, 1996, and also created a sound performance during the exhibition opening.

With choreographer Simone Forti
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Van Riper worked with dancer Simone Forti, providing lighting design and live sound accompaniment to her dance performances. An avant garde dancer and choreographer, Forti took part in some of Allan Kaprow's 1960s happenings and specialized in improvised dancing. While working with her, Van Riper mostly used soprano and sopranino saxophones but also various devices and objects or even tape music. He also moved freely around the stage and dancer.