Sanford Biggers: An artist's unflinching look at racial violence
Sanford Biggers: Le regard déterminé d'un artiste sur la violence raciale
Sanford Biggers creates art that upends traditional narratives about topics ranging from hip hop to Buddhism to American history. Full bio
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to spark challenging conversations.
video and performance.
et les performances artistiques.
de la forme,
are history and dialogue.
sont l'histoire et la parole.
of a lotus blossom.
for transcendence
symbole de transcendence
to be the cross-section of a slave ship.
from a British slaving manual
d'un manuel britannique sur l'esclavage
the atrocities of slavery.
to talk about slavery,
parler de l'esclavage.
de l'Amérique noire
about our shared past.
sur notre passé commun.
we carved over 6,000 figures.
nous avons gravé 6 000 silhouettes.
by the City of New York
at the Eagle Academy for Young Men,
à la Eagle Academy for Young Men,
noirs et latinos,
by this history.
par cette histoire.
par un phénomène plus récent,
by a more recent phenomenon,
faire une digression.
africaines en bois
wooden African figures
et marchés aux puces du monde entier.
around the world.
of them is completely debatable,
sont complètement discutables
to be imbued with power,
qu'ils sont imprégnés de pouvoir
how to use this in my own work.
dans mon travail.
the killings of Trayvon Martin,
des meurtres de Trayvon Martin,
Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice
Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice,
unarmed black citizens
noirs non armés
with no punishment at all.
sans aucune sanction.
respectueux de la loi,
at gunpoint by the police.
tenu en joue par la police,
simply entitled "BAM."
intitulée « BAM ».
the identity of each of these figures,
l'identité de chacun de ces personnages,
and easier to disregard.
et les rendre plus faciles à ignorer.
dans une épaisse cire marron
brown wax
en utilisant des balles.
high-speed video cameras.
et des caméras haute vitesse.
kept me from actually pulling the trigger,
que je me tuais moi-même.
be shooting myself.
fired the shots.
a tiré les coups de feu.
and cast them first in wax,
et les ai coulés d'abord dans de la cire,
like the image you see here,
comme l'image que vous voyez ici,
of its violent creation
de sa violente création
ou cicatrices de guerre.
ce travail à Miami,
chaque coup de feu dans son âme.
every gun shot to her soul.
que ces œuvres d'art
de ces assassinats
racial violence throughout US history.
de violence raciale
than just US history.
à Berlin l'an dernier,
what prompted these recent killings.
m'a demandé
of a lynching postcard
have been going on for over 500 years.
about history and race
crée un espace sûr
to engage one another
pour les gens d'entamer
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sanford Biggers - Conceptual artistSanford Biggers creates art that upends traditional narratives about topics ranging from hip hop to Buddhism to American history.
Why you should listen
An LA native working in NYC, Sanford Biggers creates artworks that integrate film, video, installation, sculpture, drawing, original music and performance. He intentionally complicates issues such as hip hop, Buddhism, politics, identity and art history in order to offer new perspectives and associations for established symbols. Through a multi-disciplinary formal process and a syncretic creative approach, he makes works that are as aesthetically pleasing as they are conceptual.
The significance of Biggers' work within contemporary society has been celebrated through solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally, most recently at the Brooklyn Museum, Sculpture Center and Mass MoCA. He has participated in prestigious residencies and fellowships including: Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany; Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland; Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California; ARCUS Project Foundation, Ibaraki, Japan; and the Art in General/ Trafo Gallery Eastern European Exchange in Budapest, Hungary. He has been a fellow of the Creative Time Global Residency, the Socrates Sculpture Park Residency, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council World Views AIR Program, the Eyebeam Atelier Teaching Residency, the Studio Museum AIR Program, the P.S. 1 International Studio Program and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture residency.
Biggers' installations, videos and performances have appeared in venues worldwide including Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London, the Whitney Museum and Studio Museum in Harlem, New York and the Yerba Bue a Center for the Arts in San Francisco, as well as institutions in China, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Poland and Russia. The artist's works have been included in notable exhibitions such as: Prospect 1 New Orleans Biennial, Illuminations at the Tate Modern, Performa 07 in NY, the Whitney Biennial and Freestyle at the Studio Museum in Harlem. His works are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum, Brooklyn Museum and Bronx Museum.
Biggers has won awards including: the American Academy in Berlin Prize, Greenfield Prize, New York City Art Teachers Association Artist-of-the-Year, Creative Time Travel Grant, Creative Capital Project Grant, New York Percent for the Arts Commission, Art Matters Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts Award, the Lambent Fellowship in the Arts, the Pennies From Heaven/ New York Community Trust Award, Tanne Foundation Award and Rema Hort Mann Foundation Award Grant.
Biggers is Assistant Professor at Columbia University's Visual Arts program and a board member of Sculpture Center, Soho House and the CUE Foundation. He has also taught at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Sculpture and Expanded Media program and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University's VES Department in 2009.
Sanford Biggers | Speaker | TED.com