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Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch

Availability: Out of stock

$45.00
Member Price: $40.50
Andrea Andersson and Antonio Sergio Bessa;
With contributions by Greg Tate, Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard, Mia Kang, and John Jennings with David Brame and Esperanza Bey
Hardcover
192 pages, 9 1/2 x 10 1/4
129 color illus.
ISBN: 9780300248647

Sanford Biggers (b. 1970) is a Harlem-based artist working in various media including painting, sculpture, video, and performance. He describes his practice as “code-switching”—mixing disparate elements to create layers of meaning—to account for his wide-ranging interests. This catalogue focuses on a series of repurposed quilts (many made in the 19th century) that embodies this interest in mixture. Informed by the significance of quilts to the Underground Railroad, Biggers transforms the quilts into new works using materials such as paint, tar, glitter, and charcoal to add his own layers of codes, whether they be historical, political, or purely artistic. Insightful essays survey Biggers’s career, his art in relation to music, and the history upon which the series draws. Also featured is a short yet powerful graphic essay by an award-winning illustrator that introduces the layered meanings inherent in the art and craft of quilting.

Details

Andrea Andersson is the founding director of Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought, New Orleans. She previously served as the Helis Foundation Chief Curator of the Visual Arts at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans. Antonio Sergio Bessa is director of curatorial programs at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.

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