Tunic, 2003

Quotation and recontextualization are key strategies employed by Sanford Biggers, who repurposes traditions, rituals, and objects associated with both African Americans and Eastern religion. Commissioned by the Museum for the 2003 exhibition Shuffling the Deck and inspired by a ceremonial cape from mid-twentieth-century Cameroon, Tunic consists of a puffy jacket partially disguised by a layer of feathers. The meeting of these two very different artifacts sets in motion a collision with ­historical, geographical, and cultural ramifications. The urban meets the rural, while hip-hop mingles with traditional Bamileke dance. Biggers’s puffy, feathered jacket is also intended to underscore affinities: display, competition, and affiliation are only some of the connotations that it shares with the tunic.

Tunic takes inspiration from a work in the Museum’s collections: a plumed ceremonial cape made in twentieth-century Cameroon. Biggers’s updated version is a bubble down jacket completely covered with feathers and similar to the original African garment in its dramatic impact. The meeting of these two artifacts sets in motion a collision with historical, geographical, and cultural ramifications. The urban meets the rural, while hip-hop mingles with Bamileke men’s initiation dance.