Constellation (Stranger Fruit): An Installation by Sanford Biggers. November 6 - December 2, Memorial Hall / Sanders Theatre Transept. Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 12-6pm, Sun 12-3pm. Closed Nov 26 & 27. Closed Nov 28 before 2pm.
A Conversation with Sanford Biggers: November 16, 6pm. Harvard Art Museum More info
Performance with Imani Uzuri: November 18, 4pm. Memorial Hall / Sanders Theatre Transept. Special performance at the installation, in response to the work, with vocalist/composer Imani Uzuri, with members of Harvard’s KeyChange, and instrumentalist Sumie Kaneko, followed by an informal exchange with the artists.
Through conceptual works that fuse diverse cultural sensibilities and symbols, Sanford Biggers explores the similarities underlying ostensibly disparate cultural expressions. Incorporating icons and rites ranging from Japanese mandalas and slave quilts to hip hop and YouTube music culture, the artist’s works connect the various signifiers and patterns that link African spiritualism, Buddhist sacred rituals, and African-American urban culture. At the same time, Biggers investigates history, race relations, and the socio-political environment. His works suggest that we transcend divisive social realities through the interconnectedness inherent in our shared affinity for the symbolic and the spiritual.
The fusion of meditative, historical, and contemporary concerns can be seen in the new work that Biggers has developed for Harvard. Stranger Fruit reflects the artist's interest in the coded geometries by which we communicate. It also considers the African-American experience, tapping local history in this investigation. It recalls the directional messages embedded in quilt patterns and the constellations of stars that directed slaves along the Underground Railroad to freedom in Boston and other northern destinations in 19th century America.
Biggers’ installations, performances, and videos have been shown in venues worldwide including the Tate Modern, London; Whitney Museum, New York; Studio Museum, Harlem; Prospect 1/New Orlean Biennial; and institutions in China, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Poland and Russia.
The artist is also the recipient of numerous awards including, most recently, the 2009 William H. Johnson Prize, an award given annually to an early-career African-American artist. He was a finalist for the inaugural Jack Wolgin Fine Arts Prize, the largest award given to a visual artist in a juried competition. Among the awards Biggers has garnered are the Creative Capital Project Grant, New York Percent for the Arts Commission, Art Matters Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts Award in performance art/multidisciplinary work, Tanne Foundation Award, and Rema Hort Mann Foundation Award Grant.
Biggers received a MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A native of Los Angeles, he has lived in Japan and currently resides in New York. In January 2010, he begins a new appointment as Assistant Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts.
