Burning Question
In what ways does the consilience of centuries of African, Asian, and European influence effect cultural forms such as music, art, dance, food, spirituality, and politics in a contemporary society?
Traveled To
Salvador, Bahia, Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
About the Artist
Born 1970, Los Angeles. Lives and works in New York.
Biggers will use this opportunity to investigate societies with great cultural syncretism and cross-pollination—a melding of different beliefs, traditions, and cultural influences—in order to continue exploring what has become a central focus of his artistic practice. Biggers intends to create sound works and a follow up video to Shuffle, a recent video work filmed in Germany.
Sanford Biggers creates multi-disciplinary artworks that integrate film and video, sculpture, music, and performance. He uses the study of ethnological objects, popular icons, and the Dadaist tradition to explore cultural and creative syncretism, art history, and politics. An accomplished musician, Biggers often incorporates performative elements into his sculptures and installations, resulting in multilayered works that act as anecdotal vignettes, at once full of wit and clear formal intent. He has exhibited internationally since 2000 and has participated in many significant exhibitions including Freestyle and Black Belt at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; the Whitney Biennial (2002); Rapper’s Delight at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Performa 07 and Illuminations at the Tate Modern, London (2007). In 2009, Sanford realized several new commission works for the New York Percent for the Arts, Creative Capital, New York, The Kitchen, New York, and Harvard University’s Office of Fine Arts.