Sanford Biggers

Unsui (Mirror)
June 2 - September 15
Paepcke Park

Coming straight from its debut at Desert X, this art installation features two sequined, pole-mounted clouds floating at Aspen’s front door. These works were co-commissioned by Desert X and Buckhorn Public Arts, and presented locally in partnership with Aspen Public Art.

Sanford Biggers
b. Los Angeles, California
based in New York

Sanford Biggers is a multimedia artist whose practice encompasses painting, sculpture, video, photography, music, and performance. As an artistic intermediary, he disrupts established narratives, weaving U.S. history into broader global frameworks. By remixing cultural symbols and intervening in historical forms, he complicates collective mythologies and reimagines traditions. His work reflects personal experiences, from his early engagement with graffiti art in Los Angeles to his time living in Japan, shaping his ability to bridge disparate cultural and historical contexts.

Unsui (Mirror) features two towering sequin sculptures set against the expansive desert sky. Clouds, a recurring motif in Biggers’ work, symbolize freedom, boundlessness, and interconnection. Drawing on Biggers’ study of Buddhism, these clouds — or unsui (“clouds and water” in Japanese) — embody unencumbered movement. Shimmering in the desert light, they evoke a feeling of timelessness and transcendence.

Standing over 27 feet tall, the sequin-covered clouds shift with the sunlight and wind. They symbolize change and continuity, forecasting rain and storms while reflecting the interplay between natural phenomena and cultural symbolism. This context grounds Biggers’ exploration of memory and identity within a shared visual and experiential language.