“Semaphore” draws a link between Biggers’ painted quilt assemblages—works that incorporate ethically sourced fragments from antique quilts—and freestanding sculptures. Biggers first began working with salvaged quilts in 2009 in developing a work for display in Mother Bethel AME Church, a site that was once a stop on the Underground Railroad. Research for the project exposed Biggers to the idea that such sites employed quilt displays as coded devices or signposts that guided enslaved people along the path to freedom. Quilt assemblages have remained part of his core artistic practices ever since.
