“Afropick" by Sanford Biggers

Sanford Biggers (U.S.A., b. 1970) builds fantastical composite art objects, or creates images of them, to explore ideas born out of encounters between different cultures. The roughly six-foot-tall woodcut Afropick is the product of two traditions familiar to Biggers: African-American political identity and Japanese printmaking. It explores and reinforces connections between race, the body, and political self-determination.

The hair pick at the center of Biggers’ print is a biomorphic tool. Topped by a fist clenched in a Black Power salute, the lower half extends downward into dangling, organic tendrils resembling tree roots or locked hair. His use of the clenched fist symbol in 2005 speaks not just to its history but also to its enduring legibility in the ongoing struggle for racial equality in America.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.