James Higginson (filmmaker)

Born James Harold Higginson, Jr in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to James Harold and Louise Betterly Higginson. He is the oldest of 5 children, raised in a suburb of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Higginson received his BS in Marine Biology in 1978 from Pennsylvania State University. He attended night school at Museum of Fine Arts School, Boston, Mass. and attended Art Center College of Design (1982-4). He received his MFA in Studio Art from Claremont Graduate University in 1990.

Marine Biologist

Higginson was a biologist before becoming a fine artist. He worked as a research assistant for Texas State University at the St. Croix Marine Facility, USVI (1979) and as research technician at Boston University Biology Department (1980-2).

Getting Started in Art and Film

He moved to Los Angeles to attend Art Center College of Design (1982) and was hired by a Disney subsidiary to work on a children’s TV show, “Welcome to Pooh Corner” (1984) and then Production Designed the TV show “Dumbo’s Circus”(1986).

In 1988, Higginson was awarded a Daytime Emmy with the creative team, Gary Panter, Ric Heitzman, Wayne White, Jeremy Railton, and Paul Rubens for the Production Design/Art Direction/Set Decoration of the CBS cult classic TV show, Pee-wee's Playhouse (1987-88). He worked as a set decorator for commercial director Joe Pytka and with set decorator Judi Giovanni on the film Sandlot (1993). He worked as the prop master for MADTV (1995-2003).

Art Career

Higginson’s artworks diverge from painting and sculpture in his early career through performance and photography in mid-career and then into film.

Painting

As a painter, Higginson was invited to collaborate with Chinese Master Xie Tien Cheng in 1989 on a body of 30 paintings that combined techniques of Western conceptual art making with elements of traditional Eastern painting. Over the course of the five-week collaboration, the two artists contemporized the subjects, modes, and styles of the T’ang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). as well, they addressed the tumultuous political climate of the current time and the events surrounding the Tiananmen Square Massacre. These paintings were exhibited at the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California in 1993.^[1]

Photography

Higginson’s photography took focus by the late 1990s. In “Portraits of Violence”, he tackled the issue of domestic violence with life-size, color, staged photographs. Using lectures, panel discussions, tours, and live performances, Higginson then expanded the dialogue between his artwork in the museum and the community. “Portraits of Violence” has been exhibited worldwide in galleries and museums in California, New York, Berlin (C/O Berlin^[2]), Budapest, and Cologne. A hardcover book of this photography series, POV:Portraits of Violence,^[3] was published in 2004.

Films

James Higginson^[4] grounded the production companies Avonbiehl (2011-2019) and Allaluce Films (2022-present) in support of film and photographic projects. He has produced, directed, written, and worked as the DOP for

• Willful Blindness (2012), an experimental feature,
• Devout (2017), a feature documentary, and
• Shuddhi (film, 2023), a docu-hybrid short film.

Teaching

Higginson is a guest lecturer, having addressed audiences at the University of Southern California, Otis School of Art, Claremont Graduate University, and Laguna Art Museum in California (USA). He has also addressed audiences at BTK (today UE Germany), FHTW, C/O Berlin, HBG (Germany), FOTO K (Vienna, Austria), University of East London (UK), Fatamorgana (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Pearl Academy, St Pauls College for Women, and Atharva College/Mumbai University (India). Higginson is an Adjunct Faculty currently teaching Photography at SRH-DAB, Berlin.

Organizations

• IATSE Local 44^[5]
• FAR (Foundation for Art Resources) — Board of Directors 1991–1993
• Visual Artist Guild — Board of Directors 2000–2003

Willful Blindness (2012)

Breaks the boundaries of distant memory and familiar present. Three interwoven narrative threads are reconstituted in an unconventional, experimental, kaleidoscopic rollercoaster ride that becomes this visual experience. Surreal and shocking, yet oddly meditative, is a stunning journey into personal choice and survival.^[6]

• Italian Premier: Screened during 55th Venice Biennale, 2013

• German Premier: Neuer Deutscher Film Series, Berlin, 2013

Higginson takes the concept of film to its final limits---that it is not the camera that is the projector, it is us, our minds, reaching out of the depths of the repressed impulses who streams our darkest fears onto a helpless blank white screen. Powerful and moving, even frightening, Willful Blindness is an act of art.

— Jeanne Willette, IMDb review, June 2012

Devout (2017)

Provides a glimpse into the life of a 22-year-old Georgian Orthodox monk as he contemplates his understanding of faith. The film bears cinematic witness to his internalized struggle as it presents a visual portrait of the monks, their contemporary, ritualistic lives, and the work inside the monasteries.^[7]

Shuddhi (2023)

A poetic blend of documentary and auteur cinema, interweaves themes of humanness, fear, love, judgement, and the never-ending cycle of water. SHUDDHI reveals the reality of Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) and its enduring stigma, creating a meditative portrait of familial tenderness and cultural respect against the backdrop of India's rivers, landscapes, and a remaining hospital for the disease.^[8]

Higginson’s interest to serve the community has reached outside the Fine Art World. To utilize the arts as a tool to elevate public awareness of pressing social problems, Higginson established the graphic design company d3G in 1999. d3G created graphics, photography, and artwork for community-focused projects designed to educate, inform, and inspire current and future generations.

During 2000-01, d3G focused on HIV education creating a Safe Sex Campaign in cooperation with the US cities of West Hollywood and Los Angeles and organizations including Aid for AIDS, L.A. Shanti, and the Van Ness House. Media coverage of this campaign extended to Berlin, Germany, with magazine articles discussing the significance of Safe Sex in the gay community. In June 2001, Higginson’s image, entitled Metamorphize, was selected to represent the event commemorating the 20th Anniversary of AIDS in Los Angeles. The d3G tagline, “become someone to admire” branded the citywide, multi-media day of remembrance.

Solo Exhibitions

• 2015: BEHOLD: Perspectives at play in a young man’s mind, Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin, Germany^[9]
• 2007: Inheritance, Raab Galerie, Berlin
• 2007: I LOVE YOU: Portraits Against Violence, Studio DuMont, Cologne, Germany
• 2006: Searching Sierra Madre, Raab Galerie, Berlin, Germany
• 2005: I LOVE YOU: Portraits Against Violence, Ernst Museum, Budapest, Hungary
• 2005: Recollections, Sala Museale del Baraccano, Bologna, Italy
• 2003: Portraits of Violence, C/O Berlin, Berlin, Germany^[10]
• 2003: POV: Sacrifice, Momenta Art, Brooklyn, New York
• 2002: POV: The Story of Shelley, Post, Los Angeles, California
• 2001: Nachdenken/Ponderance, MillerDurazo Gallery, Los Angeles, California
• 2000:  Shapes & Compositions, MillerDurazo Gallery, Los Angeles, California
• 1992: The China Paintings, Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California
• 1992:The Continuation of Life Series, Bevery Hills Library, California
• 1990: o.u. being, East Gallery, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California
• 1989: The China Paintings, Grand Hall, Guilin, P.R.China.
• 1987: Brethern, Eilat Gordin Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Selected Group Exhibitions

• 2010: PIXXELPOINT Video Festival, Gorizia
• 2010: Europäischer Monat der Fotografie Wien
• 2010: Tammen Galerie, Berlin
• 2009: Tammen Galerie, Berlin
• 2008: Tammen Galerie, Berlin
• 2008: Fotogalerie Wien, Wien, Austria
• 2007: Like There is no Tomorrow, Galerie Caprice Horn, Berlin
• 2007: Berlin-LA Interface, Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Berlin
• 2005: DEFENSE: Body and Nobody in Self Protection, UC at Riverside, CA.
• 2004: Aufruhr der Gefuehle, Museum of Photography, Braunschweig, Germany
• 2004: Aufruhr der Gefuehle, Kunsthalle Goeppingen, Goeppingen, Germany
• 2002: Gallery Kobo Chika, Tokyo, Japan
• 2002: Post, Los Angeles, California
• 2001: Post, Los Angeles, California
• 1999: Art & Democracy II, Merging One Gallery, Santa Monica, California
• 1999: Big Wave 2, Andrew Shire Gallery, Los Angeles, California
• 1999: Scapeland, Post, Los Angeles, California
• 1994: Symbolic Garments, Cypress College Gallery, Cypress, California
• 1993: Sue Spaid Fine Art, Los Angeles, California
• 1992: FarBazaar, Los Angeles, CA
• 1989: Art & Democracy, Merging One Gallery, Santa Monica, California

Selected Performances

• 2003: Lao Niao: A Walk with Light to Love, C/O Berlin, Berlin, Germany
• 1999: Lao Niao, Merging One Gallery, Santa Monica, California
• 1998: Lao Niao, Akademie der Kunst, Berlin, Germany
• 1994: o.u. being, Cypress College, Cypress, CA
• 1990: A HUNGER, igLoo Theater, Los Angeles Festival for Freedom of Expression
• 1990: o.u. being, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, CA
• 1989: John Woodall’s Gim Crack, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
• 1989: The Goat Story, LACE Rough Cuts & UCLA Works in Progress, Los Angeles, CA
• 1988: The Goat Story, Drama Workshop, Sydney, Australia.