SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY.
September 10 – November 28, 2011

Press Release:
In Cosmic Voodoo Circus, Biggers exploits the carnival aesthetic to address profound issues of identity, the power of objects, as well as spiritual and cultural transmigration. At the center of Biggers’ installation is a new video titled Shake, the second part in an odyssean trilogy about the formation and dissolution of identity. Shot in Brazil with a Creative Time travel grant, Shake follows Ricardo Castillo, a Brazilian-born, Germany based, choreographer, clown, stuntman and DJ, through a transformative journey. From the ocean through the favelas, Castillo travels to a colonial palace and eventually returns to the sea as an androgynous silver-skinned figure. (The first video in the trilogy, Shuffle, will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, beginning September 23, 2011 as part of Sanford Biggers: Sweet Funk – an Introspective.) The installation will also feature several new sculptures including an empty trapeze swinging overhead like a pendulum, a large scale female figure inspired by African fetish sculptures, and a billboard sized minstrel-like toothy grin, a recurrent image in Biggers’ work.