Desert X | Sanford Biggers

b. Los Angeles, California
Based in New York

Unsui (Mirror)
33.867286, -116.552478
James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center,
480 W. Tramview Road, Palm Springs

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 30 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.

Situated at the James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center in Palm Springs, these clouds convey a message of hope and freedom. This historic Black community was established in the 1960s after the forced displacement of residents of color from Section 14, a square mile of land near downtown Palm Springs. Activists whose families reside in Desert Highland Gateway Estates continue toward reparations efforts today.

Commissioned in partnership with Buckhorn Public Arts.