Artist Lecture #2 - Sanford Biggers

I almost didn't go to the lecture today because I had a crit at 2:00, but I had to get money to Ashley S, so I decided to go but I had to leave a little early. I'm glad I went though because I really enjoyed a lot of his work. Of course I was very interested in his musical influences as my work is dealing with ideas about music. I also love hip-hop music so it was cool to see art that deals with themes about hip-hop.

I thought something kind of interesting happened when he showed the first video. At one point when it is demanding that everyone get up out of their chairs, hang out the window, and get mad. I almost expected people to get up, or I almost felt the desire myself to get up, but everyone just sat there. It just seemed funny in the context of having all those people watching it.
I also enjoyed his breakdancing piece, when viewed from the top it, like the synchronized dancers, creates a sort of human visualizer and puts the art of breakdancing in a place that treats it as an art. I liked the idea of it being a Buddhist pattern which brings to mind the idea of dance or music as meditation or spirituality. This is something I would like to incorporate in my work.


I couldn't find an image of it on-line, but I thought his piece with the footage of the black and white families was very interesting because for a while I didn't realize that the two families were of different races. That was one of the last things I noticed, which really made the piece a lot stronger for me.
One of the last pieces I saw was this one, I thought it was visually really cool, but I didn't really get it.