Janet Biggs: Flight and BuSpar

For this first-ever video installation to be presented at the Western Gallery, the exhibition space was transformed into a totally black box. Biggs large-scale, sonorous, multi-channel videos project the viewer into psychological themes dealing with fears and fantasies. Reoccurring images in this nationally known artist's video work range from the young child to the middle-aged adult; from the stuffed toy horse to a large, instinctive animal; from an enclosed room to water or outer space. Flight, for example, incorporated the images of a space astronaut, horses and swimmers; BuSpar paired an elderly woman in a rocking chair with horses cantering in a ring. By drawing the viewer into a multi-channel presentation with unusual viewpoints and intersection of images, Biggs made every spectator re-envision familiar images and examine contemporary issues about identity, modernity and lines of power.