Title of Event: Carlos Barberana: Artist’s Talk
Date and time of event: October 2, 2024 at 3 pm
Location of event: Holmes Hall Hislop Family Auditorium 116
Type of event: Artist lecture with Q&A
1.) Provide a brief detail-oriented technical description or summary of the event you attended.
Carlos Barberana, who is from Chicago and born in Nicaragua, was invited to Bucknell through the Ekard Artist-in-Residence program and gave a lecture about his art. He is a self taught printmaker, and he draws on his history from Nicaragua to create art advocating for social, political, and environmental justice. He spoke of his experiences growing up and throughout his career.
2.) Use the section below to write a well-structured paragraph focusing on your personal critical insight / response to the event. How did you interpret or react to what was presented to you?
Barberana’s work is really impressive. The phrases he chooses to use in the print are very impactful to me alongside the backstory of each individual. Every subject he chose to depict had an impactful backstory that portrays a crucial perspective in the fight for social justice. I really appreciated the cultural context that Barberana provided for each of his works, as they make the pieces much more impactful and poetic. Many of the events he described were distressing to hear about yet important to share. Barberana’s pieces can serve to memorialize a tragedy and preserve the consequence of the brutality and violence that caused the victim’s death.
3.) What information, ideas, images, etc. most impressed you and why?
What impressed me a lot in his works were the patterns he would use for the backgrounds and clothing of the portraits, which seemed to be designed to depict the subject’s culture and background. I really appreciated his comment on the ephemeralness of his publicly displayed prints, and how he expects it to be taken down but he connects that reality to the experience of migrant workers. It shows me his thoroughness and intention in his creation process. I admire how unifying his overall work is, how he takes his own experiences and troubles from growing up, and relates them to the experiences of other marginalized groups, then he decisively supports and advocates for those groups as well. It feels very selfless of him to see and empathize with other people’s struggles throughout the world, his goal to fight oppression throughout the world is impressive and ambitious.
4.) Overall, how would you rate this event (10 being the most worthwhile)?
I would rate this event an 8.5 out of 10.
5.) Justify your rating in the question above:
Barberana shared a lot of cultural background and struggles I was not aware of, and also tied it to many I was already familiar with. I think it is really important to not ignore these struggles. By showing his artwork in chronological order I could also see the evolution of his works and the impact it had. His talk seemed very impactful to the audience, as there were multiple questions from students at the end. Although his talk was long, his stories and inspiration for his art was never dull. The food afterwards also allowed the audience to interact with each other and discuss how they felt about the lecture, which I find to be an important part of the experience.
