Laura Anderson Barbata

Papua New Guinea

Anthropogenic Impact, Multispecies, Ocean and civilization, Transdisciplinary

Laura Anderson Barbata, Ocean Calling, 2017. Performance in collaboration with Chris Walker, the Brooklyn Jumbies and Jarana Beat. United Nations Plaza, New York. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary TBA21 Academy. Photography by Frank Veronsky. Courtesy the artist.

Artist

Region
Papua New Guinea

Category
Traditional Knowledge and Cosmologies

Topics
Anthropogenic Impact, Multispecies, Ocean and civilization, Transdisciplinary

Methodology
Performance

Projects
Biography
Conferences
Further Reading
Selected References

Laura Anderson Barbata

Projects

Ocean Calling

2017

Newell Harry, (Untitled) Anagrams and Objects for Ru & Ru, 2015 (background), and Laura Anderson Barbata, Queen and Bird Fish Prince, 2017 (foreground). The Oceanic (2017), NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.

Laura Anderson Barbata, Queen and Bird Fish Prince, 2017 (foreground). The Oceanic (2017), NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.

Laura Anderson Barbata, Queen, 2017. The Oceanic (2017), NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.

Laura Anderson Barbata, Bird Fish Prince, 2017. The Oceanic (2017), NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. Courtesy NTU CCA
Singapore.

Collaborators

Laura Anderson Barbata (artist), Chris Walker (choreographer and dancer), The Brooklyn Jumbies Stilt Dancers: Najja Codrington, Keil Alibocas, Jabari Rollocks, Dhaunte Richardson and Kyle Lambert. The Brooklyn Jumbies Ground Dancers: Jahde Huntley, Konate Primus, Cheikh Gueye. Mei Yamanaka (choreographer and dancer) Candace Thompson, Alicia Dellimore and Sinuhé Padilla Jarana Beat musicians.

Exhibited at

What-Lives-Beneath, 2016, TBA21 The Current, The Kula Ring convening, Jamaica.
The Oceanic, 2017. NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, Singapore.
Performed at United Nations Ocean Conference, 2017, New York City.

Ocean Calling, 2017 is a cross-disciplinary performance and sculptural work, created by Laura Anderson Barbata (Mexico-New York) in collaboration with artists from the Caribbean diaspora and Mexico, that continues to evolve as it includes new collaborators around the world. Based on firsthand experiences, research and ancient wisdom, it charts the physical and emotional relationship maintained with the life of our oceans and the urgent need for collective transformation. The resulting work combines spoken word, dance, improvisation, stilt dancing, ritual, procession, costuming and music to create a unique form of storied performance that was performed on June 8^th, 2017 World Oceans Day at the United Nations Eastern Plaza during the first United Nations Ocean Conference in New York City.

Ocean Calling is inspired by all the forms of life that make the ocean their home, as well as by the people, the histories and the cosmography of the communities that for millennia have lived in close relationship with the ocean. The work unfolds in an urban environment highly dependent on the health of the oceans, even though it may not be overtly obvious to our urban communities. Ocean Calling invites audiences to first acknowledge our intersecting identities and then, to celebrate and honor them by changing behaviors to protect our oceans.

The work highlights the importance of the Declaration signed by Pacific Island Countries and Territories to significantly improve Ocean governance, which was drafted during the Pacific Regional Platform for Partnerships and Action on Sustainable Development Goal 14 meeting, which took place this year in Suva, Fiji [1].

_{[1] Text provided by the artist.}

Biography

Laura Anderson Barbata (born in Mexico) develops sustainable art-centered projects that integrate collaborative and participatory work to address social justice and the environment. The artist writes "As a Mexican-born, New York-based artist, it is my belief that a shared artistic and social practice can serve as a platform on which we connect, learn, exchange, create, and transcend borders in order to activate our sense of belonging to our local and global community [2]." Barbata seeks to further the expectations of socially-engaged art by involving collaborators such as archives, scientists, activists, musicians, street dancers, and artisans to create works that operate both inside and outside of the art world. Since 2001, Barbata began to work with stilt dancers in Trinidad and Tobago, and since 2007, has consistently collaborated with the Brooklyn Jumbies, and in 2012 with the Zancudos de Zaachila from Oaxaca, Mexico. The resulting interventions combine character and narrative development with numerous collaborators in addition to textile arts, sculpture, dance, masking, music, procession, improvisation, ritual and protest [3].

_{[2] Laura Anderson Barbata, “Bio+CV,” Laura Anderson Barbata, n.d., https://www.lauraandersonbarbata.com/bio-cv.}
_{[3] Laura Anderson Barbata, “Bio+CV,” Laura Anderson Barbata, n.d., https://www.lauraandersonbarbata.com/bio-cv.}

Website

Laura Anderson Barbata. Courtesy the artist.

Conferences

Performing Care, College Art Association Annual Conference
Ecofeminisms, TFAP@CAA-The Feminist Art Project

Performing Care. The Display of Feminist Ethics in Public Space: Reciprocity, Ritual and Community

Chair at College Art Association Annual Conference, New York, 2023.

Ecofeminisms, TFAP@CAA-The Feminist Art Project

TFAP@CAA-The Feminist Art Project. Ecofeminisms, 2021
Convener: Tatiana Flores. Co-chairs: Ana María Reyes and Laura Anderson Barbata

Selected Exhibitions

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023 Laura Anderson Barbata: Singing Leaf. Marlborough Gallery, New York.
2022 Intervention: Ocean Blues. Public performance for the Dallas Arts District. In collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies and Amphibian Stage Tad-Poles.
2021 Transcommunality. Exhibition and Public Programme. Newcomb Museum, Tulane University, New Orleans.
2020 Intervention: Indigo. Public Street performance. MUCA Roma, México City. In collaboration with Chris Walker; UNAM Dance Department; Los Diablod, Rebeldes del Capricho, Ometepec, Guerrero, Elizabeth Ross, Teatro Pro-Alterne.
2017 Ocean Calling. Performance in collaboration with Chris Walker, the Brooklyn Jumbies and Jarana Beat. United Nations Plaza, New York. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary TBA21 Academy, Vienna.
2017 Ocean Blue(s). Performance in Collaboration with the Brooklyn Jumbies. NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, Singapore.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022 17th Istanbul Biennale Müze Gazhane and Zeytinurnu Medicinal Plants Garden, Istanbul. Supported by Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo and Embassy of Mexico in Ankara.
2018 The Oceanic. NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, Singapore.

Selected Residencies

2022 - 2023 Artist Fellow, National Arts Club, New York
2019 Arts and Literary Arts Residency, The Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy
2016 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence Lectureship, The Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities, Rutgers University
2016 Artist-in-Residence, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
2015 Fellow, TBA21 Contemporary Academy. Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art

Selected Awards

2017 Premio Mario Trujillo García: in Defense of Human Rights. Instituto de Administración Pública de Tabasco A.C.
2016 Anonymous Was a Woman, 2016, Award Recipient