Janet Biggs Vanishing Point single-channel video, 2009 With its title taken from Richard Sarafian's 1971 road movie, Janet Biggs'new video Vanishing Point looks at the ways in which an individual vanishes. Informed by her experiences with the effects of Alzheimer's disease, Biggs asks, "When are we no longer ourselves?" Combining images of motorcycle speed record holder Leslie Porterfield on the salt flats of Utah with Harlem's Addicts Rehabilitation Center Gospel Choir performing a song written specifically for the video, Biggs' Vanishing Point examines the struggle to maintain one's identity, the roll of those who witness that identity vanishing, and a search for freedom that can end in destruction or transcendence. Leslie Porterfield is fast. After a devastating crash on the Bonneville Salt Flats at over 100 mph in 2007 she returned in 2008 and broke three world records with a top speed of 234 mph. Filmed during these record breaking runs, Biggs' captures Porterfield's intense focus when everything is stripped away but the desire to be the fastest in the world. |