New Faculty Profile: Laura Anderson Barbata

Laura Anderson Barbata, Ocean Calling, 2017. Created in collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies, Chris Walker and Jarana Beat, Ocean Calling is a response to the effects of global warming on all forms of life that make the ocean their home. Presented at the United Nations at the first Ocean Conference in 2017. Procession, performance, dance, music, textile arts, costuming, ritual, and protest. Photo: Frank Veronsky.
Laura Anderson Barbata, Ocean Calling, 2017. Created in collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies, Chris Walker and Jarana Beat, Ocean Calling is a response to the effects of global warming on all forms of life that make the ocean their home. Presented at the United Nations at the first Ocean Conference in 2017. Procession, performance, dance, music, textile arts, costuming, ritual, and protest. Photo: Frank Veronsky.

Laura Anderson Barbata joins ACT this semester as a lecturer, where she is teaching a newly offered variation on course 4.322 U/ 4.323 G Introduction to Three-Dimensional Art Work: Textiles, Fashion, and Performative Art. Having recently converted one of our spaces into a textiles lab, known as the Luna Lab, ACT is embarking on providing more access to the textile arts.

Marissa Friedman, ACT’s Marketing and Communications Manager, sat down with Laura Anderson Barbata to discuss joining ACT, the expansive field of textiles, and socially-engaged art in the public sphere.

MARISSA FRIEDMAN: What is it like teaching at ACT? At MIT? Is it different from other places you’ve taught at?

LAURA ANDERSON BARBATA: Teaching at ACT/MIT is exciting. Faculty and staff are extremely supportive and generous. The students are amazing! I love working with them.

MARISSA: What is most exciting to you about what you are teaching this semester?

LAURA: I’m introducing the students to many new concepts, including: the expansive field of textiles in visual arts, performance, traditional practices and cultures, and popular culture; thoughtful observation of the natural world; exploring and developing embodied knowledge; and experimenting with materials and movement. We have visited art collections in private tours with curators, have visited horticulture departments, and met with botanists. Likewise, we have had various speakers in our class: an artist working with plants and social practice, an anthropologist specializing in Shamanism, a tailor/seamstress who offered a workshop.

Laura Anderson Barbata, Intervention Wall Street, 2011. Created in collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies. The work is in response to the economic crisis of 2008. The Performance combines procession, dance, music, and textile arts and protest and was performed in the Financial District of New York. Photo: Frank Veronsky
Laura Anderson Barbata, Intervention: Indigo, 2015. 19 costumed characters, music, dance and spontaneous interactions with the public. In collaboration with Chris Walker, Jarana Beat, and The Brooklyn Jumbies. Hand-woven indigo-dyed cotton textiles by Habibou Coulibaly (Burkina Faso). Indigo-dyed cotton brocade, printed cotton, machine embroidery, decorated sneakers, natural fibers, sequins, buttons, fabric-maché. Photo: Rene Cervantes.
Laura Anderson Barbata, Intervention: Indigo Queen, 2015. Detail of one of the central characters of the work. Indigo dyed hand-woven cotton and brocade textiles by Habibou Coulibaly (Burkina Faso). Beaded leather, with shells and seeds by Hammer Community (Ethiopia). Printed cotton, sequins, raw silk, dyed corn leaf flowers (Mexico), paper, fiberglass rods, cotton thread. Photo: Rene Cervantes.
Laura Anderson Barbata, Ocean Calling, 2017. Created in collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies, Chris Walker and Jarana Beat, Ocean Calling is a response to the effects of global warming on all forms of life that make the ocean their home. Presented at the United Nations at the first Ocean Conference in 2017. Procession, performance, dance, music, textile arts, costuming, ritual, and protest. Photo: Frank Veronsky.

My performance and “Interventions” seek to further the expectations of socially-engaged art by reclaiming public space and involving various collaborators such as librarians, scientists, activists, musicians, stilt dancers, street dancers, and artisans to create works that operate both inside and outside of the art world.

 

MARISSA: How would you describe your personal art practice?

LAURA: Since 1992 I have developed sustainable, art-centered projects and collaborations in the Venezuelan Amazon, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Norway, and the United States. The work often combines performance, procession, dance, music, textile arts, costuming, papermaking, drawing, zines, and protest. These long-term reciprocal creative exchanges integrate collaborative and participatory work to address social justice and the environment.

My performance and “Interventions” seek to further the expectations of socially-engaged art by reclaiming public space and involving various collaborators such as librarians, scientists, activists, musicians, stilt dancers, street dancers, and artisans to create works that operate both inside and outside of the art world.

MARISSA: How does your personal art practice relate to the course(s) you are teaching?

LAURA: In the course I am teaching, we explore potential ways in which students can create and collaborate, fostering an environment that enables curiosity, observation, and reciprocity. Through specific projects, artists and examples discussed in class, students experience the process of translation from two-dimensionality to three-dimensionality and vice versa. The observations lead to design experiments, and learning new techniques as well as problem solving. Some of the skills applied are: textile cutting and sewing, garment/body movement exploration, and collaboration strategies and thematic development, with the intention of activating and presenting the results publicly.

 

Laura will return in Fall 2024 to teach 4.301 Intro to Artistic Experimentation.

Laura Anderson Barbata, Ocean Calling Queen (detail), 2017. Detail of Ocean Calling Queen, a central character of the work. Shells, palm fibers, synthetic fibers, fiberglass, tapa cloth, and various textiles. Photo: Frank Veronsky.
Laura Anderson Barbata, Intervention: Ocean Blues, 2018. In collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies stilt dancers and ground dancers, is a work that combines Procession, performance, dance, music, textile arts, costuming, ritual, and protest inspired by sea creatures that have the gift of bioluminescence. A call to action to protect our Ocean by demanding drastic changes to the values and practices of private industry, policymakers and individual human behavior. Presented in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Photo: Shannel Resto. Courtesy: No Longer Empty.
Laura Anderson Barbata, Intervention: Red, 2021. Intervention: Red is an evolving project that began in 2017. In collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies, the work is inspired by the history of the color red and the use of cochineal dye that was used during the colonial invasion of the Americas. The work combines procession, textile arts, costuming, dance and interactions with spectators. In 2021 the project received the City Artist Crops Grant presented by NYFA and DCLS to present the intervention on the streets of the Theater District of New York. Photo: Stefan Falke
Laura Anderson Barbata, Intervention: Red, 2021. Intervention: Red is an evolving project that began in 2017. In collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies, the work is inspired by the history of the color red and the use of cochineal dye that was used during the colonial invasion of the Americas. The work combines procession, textile arts, costuming, dance and interactions with spectators. In 2021 the project received the City Artist Crops Grant presented by NYFA and DCLS to present the intervention on the streets of the Theater District of New York. Photo: Stefan Falke.

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