Brightness All Around
Janet Biggs, 2011.
Single-channel, high definition video, 16:9 format
Time: 8:36
Edition of 5, plus 2 APs
In the last work of the trilogy, Brightness All Around, Biggs brings the viewer back to an inspiring determination to define and defend one’s identity in perhaps the Earth’s most extreme environment. The video focuses on Linda Norberg, a woman coal miner working in a very inaccessible and dangerous place. Norberg begins each day by descending miles into the darkness beneath the frozen Arctic. Surrounded by deafening machinery, relying on her small headlamp for light, she is seen drilling and bolting the newly excavated cave ceiling in freezing temperatures and relentless darkness. Serving as a counterpoint to the terror of the underground is a vocal performance by New York music guru Bill Coleman. As an isolated performer, Coleman is sexual, seductive, and a bit threatening. Using lyrics taken from near death experiences, Coleman becomes a witness to the struggle to maintain a self of sense.
Brightness All Around will be premiered at Winkleman Gallery in New York City on February 11, 2011.
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