Sanford Biggers: An artist's unflinching look at racial violence
Sanford Biggers: Lo sguardo risoluto di un artista nei confronti della violenza razziale
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.
per far nascere conversazioni stimolanti.
video and performance.
scultura, filmati e teatro.
are history and dialogue.
sono la storia e il dialogo.
of a lotus blossom.
di un fiore di loto.
for transcendence
del trascendente,
e dello spirito.
to be the cross-section of a slave ship.
la sezione di una nave da schiavi.
from a British slaving manual
è stata presa
sulla schiavitù
the atrocities of slavery.
utilizzato dagli abolizionisti
to talk about slavery,
parlare della schiavitù,
come un'industria globale.
simbolo buddista,
e superare
about our shared past.
sul nostro passato comune.
we carved over 6,000 figures.
abbiamo intagliato più di 6.000 figure.
by the City of New York
ci ha commissionato
di 8 metri in acciaio
at the Eagle Academy for Young Men,
per la Eagle Academy for Young Men,
neri e latinoamericani,
by this history.
by a more recent phenomenon,
da un fenomeno più recente,
wooden African figures
statuette di legno africane
in giro per il mondo.
around the world.
of them is completely debatable,
sono assolutamente discutibili,
to be imbued with power,
che portino buona fortuna,
how to use this in my own work.
utilizzarle nel mio lavoro.
the killings of Trayvon Martin,
l'uccisione di Trayvon Martin,
Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice
Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice
unarmed black citizens
with no punishment at all.
senza alcuna punizione.
professore della Ivy League,
at gunpoint by the police.
con la pistola puntata dalla polizia,
simply entitled "BAM."
chiamata semplicemente "BAM".
the identity of each of these figures,
l'identità di ciascuna statuetta,
and easier to disregard.
e più facili da ignorare.
brown wax
con della spessa cera marrone
utilizzando pallottole.
high-speed video cameras.
e videocamere ad alta velocità.
kept me from actually pulling the trigger,
mi ha frenato nel premere il grilletto,
be shooting myself.
se sparassi a me stesso.
fired the shots.
ha sparato i colpi.
and cast them first in wax,
che ho prima riempito con cera,
like the image you see here,
come nella foto che vedete qui,
of its violent creation
della creazione violenta
mostra a Miami
ogni sparo nell'anima.
every gun shot to her soul.
che queste opere d'arte
di queste uccisioni
di violenza razziale
racial violence throughout US history.
than just US history.
vanno oltre la storia americana.
una mostra a Berlino,
what prompted these recent killings.
cosa alimenta queste uccisioni.
of a lynching postcard
di una cartolina
di inizio '900
have been going on for over 500 years.
sono andate avanti per oltre 500 anni.
about history and race
sulla storia e la razza
come individui e società.
offrano un luogo sicuro
to engage one another
di impegnarsi tra loro
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