Sanford
Biggers: Shuffle & Shake
November 6 – December 27, 2014
Projected onto North Façade of Everson Museum of
Art Building, Dusk – 11:00pm, Thursday – Sunday
Artist talk: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 at
6:30pm
401
Harrison Street
Syracuse,
NY
From
urbanvideoproject.com:
Urban Video Project (UVP) and
parent organization Light Work are
pleased to present the exhibition of “Shuffle”(2009) and “Shake” (2011) by
celebrated multimedia artist, Sanford Biggers. This exhibition marks the second major
exhibition of “Celestial Navigation: a year into the afro future”, a year-long
program of exhibitions and events at Urban Video Project and partner
organizations that takes afrofuturism as its point of departure.
About
the Work
“Shuffle” and “Shake” form the first two parts of Sanford Bigger’s Odyssean
trilogy about the formation and dissolution of identity.
“Shuffle”
is about the struggle between our own perception of self vs. others’
projections onto us. “Shuffle” also examines how we matriculate through
society, often masking our insecurities, pain, longing and the internal
schizophrenia of our id. Original soundtrack composed from the artist’s field
recordings made in Indonesia.
“Shake”,
the second video of the trilogy, features Ricardo Camillo — a Brazilian-born,
Germany-based choreographer, stuntman, clown and DJ — as he walks from the
favelas (or shantytowns) of Brazil, to the ocean before finally transforming
into an androgynous silver-skinned figure. Though the final imagery is straight
out of Afrofuturism, recalling the specific costuming and aesthetics of P-Funk,
it is remains extraordinarily human at the same time, referencing the soul
searching of Greek mythology.
About
the Artist
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.
Sanford
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.
For
more information, go to sanfordbiggers.com.
About
‘Celestial Navigation: a year into the afro future’
“Celestial Navigation”, a year-long program at UVP, will explore the work of
major established and emerging artists through an afrofuturist lens, including
works by Julien, Sanford Biggers, Xaviera Simmons, Jeanette Ehlers (as part of
“The Black Radical Imagination 2014,” curated by Erin Christovale and Amir
George), Cristina de Middel and Cauleen Smith. Artist talks, screenings and a
panel discussion in spring 2014 will be included in the programming. Partner
venues featuring cross-programmed exhibitions include Community Folk Art Center
(CFAC) and Light Work (both in Syracuse).
