Interviews from Yale University Radio WYBCX

Interviews from Yale University Radio   WYBCX


Janet Biggs

March 26, 2021

Janet Biggs Photo Régis Figarol

Janet Biggs is an interdisciplinary artist known for her immersive work in video, film and performance. Biggs’ work focuses on individuals in extreme landscapes or situations, navigating the territory between art, science and technology. Her work has taken her into areas of conflict and to Mars (as a member of crews at the Mars Desert Research Station and Mars Academy USA). Biggs has worked with institutions from NOAA to NASA and CERN. She has collaborated with high energy nuclear physicists, mathematicians, neuroscientists, Arctic explorers, aerospace engineers, astrophysicists and a robot named Shimon. Last year, Biggs sent a project up to the International Space Station as part of MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative.

Biggs has had solo exhibitions and film screenings at the Museos de Tenerife; Neuberger Museum of Art; SCAD Museum of Art; Blaffer Art Museum; Musee d'art contemporain de Montréal; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; among others.

Her work and research have been supported by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, Anonymous Was a Woman Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Reviews of her work have appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, ArtForum, ARTNews, Art in America, and many others.

Biggs is a member of the New Museum’s cultural incubator, NEW INC with the support of Science Sandbox. She works with Cristin Tierney Gallery, CONNERSMITH, Galerie Analix Forever and Hyphen-Hub.
Learn more on Instagram.

Here is a link to RSVP for the April 8th performance discussed n the interview: https://www.cristintierney.com/events/26/

The books mentioned in the interview are Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams, Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire, the biggest ideas in science from Quanta, Edited by Thomas Lin, The Sublimity of Document, Cinema as Diorama by Scott MacDonald, and Women Artists, The Linda Nochlin Reader, edited by Maura Reilly.

"Singular Value Decomposition" announcement for upcoming July 8th performance.

"A Step On the Sun," 2012. Four-channel HD video installation with sound.

"Weighing Life Without a Scale," 2018. Three-channel HD video installation with sound.