Writes Harris: "Black Body is an attempt to come to terms with the contradictions inherent in the experience of blackness and maleness in this country. Drawing on representations of the body in makonde carvings of Tanzania, East Africa, Black Body explores the body's physical and psychic interaction with the legacy of oppression in this country. By highlighting the ambivalence black people demonstrate toward their bodies — both the individual body and the collective body — my hope is to illuminate certain psychic legacies of African diasporic people." The tape refers to a performance during the 1992 Los Angeles uprisings, when the artist wrapped himself in wire hanger over a period of four days to explore the interaction between oppression and the body.