Not Quite Myself Today
Video Works by Eight Artists
Arizona State University
Art Museum
at the Nelson Fine Arts Center
December 15, 2001 - March 3, 2002
Sanford Biggers
Sanford Biggers
Lives and works in New York
a small world...
As we develop and grow as a nation, is American behavior becoming irreparably homogeneous in terms of our activities? Are our social and cultural experiences, increasingly influenced by economic disparity, so common and uniform that we have begun to lose our individual identities? These are the questions raised by Sanford Biggers and Jennifer Zackin in their collaborative work, entitled a small world...
Although Zackin, who is Jewish, and Biggers, who is African-American, were raised in middle-class families in the 1970s, it is hard to distinguish a major difference between the childhoods each experienced. Through original 8mm footage shot by relatives during the two artists' childhoods (much of Zackin's footage was shot by her Grandfather Green, who now lives in the Phoenix area), we are exposed to the artists' early years. Shared commonalties, such as family vacations at historical sites, a day spent at Disneyland, birthday parties and even piano lessons, helped to shape the artists into the people they are today.
Presented as an installation with loveseat and shag rug, this silent video piece invites strangers to sit together in a living room type of environment. Within this physical context, Zackin and Biggers' work underscores the fact that, despite ethnic differences, the American cultural experience often provides a disquieting sameness to family activities within a particular economic stratum.
About the Artist
Sanford Biggers received a BA from Morehouse College in Atlanta, attended Syracuse University Department of International Programs Abroad in Florence, attended Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, had a fellowship at The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and went on to receive a MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been included in the exhibitions: In the Mind's Eye, Wight Gallery, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; Gomi no Tendankai, Cabaret Mago, Nagoya, Japan; One Nation Under Groove, The Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, NY; Group of Four, NFA Space, Chicago, IL; Zoning, The Project, New York, NY; Freestyle, The Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY and Santa Monice Museum, Santa Monica, CA; Rapper's Delight, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA; Altoids Curiously Strong Collection, Traveling; Full Service, Kenny Schachter, New York, NY; The Third Dimension, Pelhan Art Center, Westchester, NY; Artists-In-Residence 2000, Studio Museum of Harlem, NY; Clockwork 2000 P.S. 1 Clocktower Studios, New York, NY; Confluence, Five Mylers Art Space, Brooklyn, NY; Altered Objects, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL; Lifers, Cordozo School of Law, New York, NY; New Talent II, Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago, IL; Dialog, Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph's Harbor, MI; Bank Holiday, Skowhegan, ME; Black Alloy, Cornerstone Alliance Community Gallery, Benton Harbor, MI; Doing Our Own Thing, Prairie State College, Chicago, IL; Sculpture in Extended Format, Green Street Space (MICA), Baltimore, MD; Black Creativity, Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL; Magical, Mythical, Monumental, Green Street Space, Baltimore, MD; Foreign Artists' Exhibition, International Center, Nagoya, Japan; Studenti de Savonarola, Piazza Savonarola, Florence, Italy; 2001 Biennial, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; Culture of Class, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD; The Allison Show, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Textuality, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; King Plow, King Plow Studios, Atlanta, GA; and Central Metals Art Space, Central Metals Art Space, Atlanta, GA. He has presented the performances: OM, Full Serve, New York, NY; The Art of Breaking, Downtown Arts Festival, New York, NY; Slam, Promotional musical performance for the film Slam, CBGB's, New York, NY; Communication Breakdown, Gallery 2, Chicago, IL; Racine des Memoirs Skowhegan, ME; Dark Magus, CBGB's, New York, NY; and Cane Song Cycles, Sculpture Center, New York, NY
His work is scheduled to appear in the 2002 Whitney Biennial.
John D. Spiak
Curatorial Museum Specialist
Arizona State University Art Museum
For more information contact John Spiak at spiak@asu.edu.
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