"[8] Her work has made various and diverse associations with prisoners, love letters, neolithic burial schema failure, history, heroic transformation, and epic sagas such as the Finnish Kalevala.

[9] Her drawings have been described as "brutal, delicate, figurative, forensic, erotic, and fantastic"[10] One of her many art historical references is Death and the Maiden (1517) by Hans Baldung Grien.

"[11][12] Her large-scale video works utilize the greater sensory impact of noise, time, darkness, and misrecognition to visibly extend into the more subterranean levels of experience.

[13] Her video “Blackmouth” premiered at the 2004 Whitney Biennia[14]l. “You’re Gonna Be My Woman” was shown at Kunsthalle Bern in 2003[15] and “Little David” for the first time at Marianne Boesky Gallery in 2000.

[17] In 2013, Piene held a live event in conversation with a Special Operations Commander in New York under the title "To Serve.