Sanford Biggers

The 13’40” long single-channel projection shows different professional black men dressed in work uniform climbing or trying to climb a tree.  One after another, they approach a tree of their choice in different locations (California and Germany) – the camera zooms in and out their action until, if they succeed, the climber reaches a comfortable position in the tree.  The paradox between the outdoor setting and the uncanny action of an adult in professional clothes climbing a tree gives a surreal atmosphere: the men do not act based on a director’s script, they simply execute the task of climbing the tree without other apparent motive than a self imposed challenge. The title “Cheshire” references the cat in Alice in Wonderland.  Sanford Biggers notes that the enigmatic animal ‘“disappears while spewing riddles or koans (Buddhist paradoxical utterances) until only his bodiless grin remains.  He is as invisible as the professional Black man is in the mass media today – but I am also thinking about Black men hanging out in trees, as opposed to being hung from them.”’[1]

The sculpture, similarly titled “Cheshire,” functions as an outrageous/shop street sign.  A broad smile with big red lips and teeth so shiny that they are made of working light bulbs. Beyond the floating smile of the Cheshire cat, this image makes reference to the “raced” body, racial stereotypes organized around a set of symbols profoundly anchored in white discourse as if the white observer was presuming to speak for all without the slightest mention of his or her own “raced” identity.  It evokes overtly racist images such as the early advertising of Banania chocolate and Darkie toothpaste, but also the complex fact that several black performers from early minstrelsy to current hip-hop have embraced and exploited racial stereotypes as a tacit acceptance to benefit from the social and financial ascension that entertainment offers to African Americans.

Sanford Biggers, originally from Los Angeles, lives and works in New York and Richmond, VA where he teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University.  Group exhibitions include Black President (a tribute to Fela Kuti) at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, Black Belt and Freestyle both at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the 2002 Whitney Biennial.  Most recently his work was included in Illuminations, a group video exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. He has had solo exhibitions among others at Grand Arts, Kansas City, Mary Goldman Gallery, Los Angeles, the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, Matrix/Univ. of Berkeley Museum, Berkeley and Zamek Ujadowski, Warsaw.