Selah
Selah
Artist
Sanford Biggers
(born 1970)
Date2017
MediumAntique quilt fragments, sequins, Aqua-Resin, and steel
Dimensions130 1/4 in. × 38 in. × 38 in. (330.8 × 96.5 × 96.5 cm)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2020.10
Accession number
2020.10
On View
Not on viewLabel TextWrapped in vintage and antique quilts the artist collects, this sculpture‘s protective layers symbolize tradition, care, and history in the making. For Selah, Sanford Biggers partially destroyed and then enlarged a souvenir African tribal figurine raising its arms in prayer. Fittingly, selah, means “forever” or “amen.”
In 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri. This sculpture also references the rallying cry “hands up, don’t shoot,” heard at Black Lives Matter protests across the country.
