Sanford Biggers: An artist's unflinching look at racial violence
桑福德·比格斯: 一个艺术家对种族暴力的无畏抗争
Sanford Biggers creates art that upends traditional narratives about topics ranging from hip hop to Buddhism to American history. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
to spark challenging conversations.
通过绘画、雕塑、视频和表演
video and performance.
一些有挑战性的话题。
are history and dialogue.
of a lotus blossom.
莲花花瓣玻璃刻绘作品。
for transcendence
to be the cross-section of a slave ship.
贩卖奴隶的船只的横截面。
from a British slaving manual
英国的奴役手册,
the atrocities of slavery.
用来展示奴隶制的残忍。
to talk about slavery,
讨论奴隶制,
当成全球的产业。
意识到非裔美国人的历史,
about our shared past.
we carved over 6,000 figures.
我们雕刻了6000多个人物。
by the City of New York
at the Eagle Academy for Young Men,
为非裔和拉丁裔学生服务的学校。
by this history.
by a more recent phenomenon,
又到了巨大的影响。
wooden African figures
纪念品商店和跳蚤市场
around the world.
of them is completely debatable,
是很值得怀疑的,
to be imbued with power,
how to use this in my own work.
它们用在我的作品中的办法。
the killings of Trayvon Martin,
世界见证了塔拉万·马丁、
Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice
桑德拉·布兰德、塔米尔·莱斯
unarmed black citizens
非裔公民
with no punishment at all.
at gunpoint by the police.
被枪口直接指着。
simply entitled "BAM."
并且简单的命名为“嘣”。
the identity of each of these figures,
并且容易被忽视
and easier to disregard.
是非常重要的。
brown wax
浓稠的棕色液体蜡之中,
high-speed video cameras.
kept me from actually pulling the trigger,
让我无法扣动扳机
be shooting myself.
对我自己射击。
fired the shots.
替我开了枪。
and cast them first in wax,
在外表裹上一层蜡,
like the image you see here,
就像你们看到的这样。
of its violent creation
暴力制造的印记
every gun shot to her soul.
每一枪都打在她的灵魂上。
racial violence throughout US history.
因为种族犯罪而牺牲的所有人
than just US history.
已经超越了美国历史。
what prompted these recent killings.
是什么引发了最近的杀戮。
of a lynching postcard
的一张画着处以私刑
have been going on for over 500 years.
about history and race
可以为这样坦诚的交流
to engage one another
真实且必要的对话之中的人
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