Sanford Biggers: An artist's unflinching look at racial violence
桑福德·比格斯: 一位藝術家對種族暴力堅定無畏的觀點
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.
激起爭論性對話的創作方式。
video and performance.
are history and dialogue.
就是歷史和對話。
of a lotus blossom.
for transcendence
超越以及心、靈純淨的象徵。
to be the cross-section of a slave ship.
from a British slaving manual
the atrocities of slavery.
用以證明奴隸制度的暴行。
to talk about slavery,
about our shared past.
we carved over 6,000 figures.
我們刻了超過 6,000 個圖形,
by the City of New York
at the Eagle Academy for Young Men,
by this history.
by a more recent phenomenon,
對這兩族群也有很大影響,
wooden African figures
及跳蚤市場的木製非洲塑像,
around the world.
of them is completely debatable,
完全是有疑問的,
to be imbued with power,
how to use this in my own work.
如何將這用在我的作品上。
the killings of Trayvon Martin,
特雷沃恩·馬丁命案,
Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice
桑德拉·布蘭德、塔米爾·萊斯,
unarmed black citizens
手無寸鐵的黑人公民
with no punishment at all.
at gunpoint by the police.
simply entitled "BAM."
the identity of each of these figures,
and easier to disregard.
brown wax
high-speed video cameras.
kept me from actually pulling the trigger,
讓我無法真正扣下扳機,
be shooting myself.
fired the shots.
and cast them first in wax,
再先用蠟做個模型,
like the image you see here,
就如你現在所見的塑像。
of its violent creation
every gun shot to her soul.
她覺得每一槍都擊中她的心靈,
racial violence throughout US history.
種族暴力下的其他受害者。
than just US history.
比只是美國歷史意義更深遠。
what prompted these recent killings.
這些最近的命案是為何發生。
of a lynching postcard
處私刑的照片給他看,
have been going on for over 500 years.
已經持續超過 500 年了。
about history and race
提供這種坦誠交流,
to engage one another
彼此真實及必要的對談。
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