Laura Anderson Barbata: Transcommunality

The book features Laura Anderson Barbata’s iconic work with stilt dancers Moko Jumbies and Zancudos for whom she creates, in collaboration with community members and traditional artisans, costumes and wearable sculptures. The resulting works challenge the notions of collaborative community art, public art, performance, sculpture and tradition. Transcommunality examines the beginning of the project in Trinidad and Tobago, and highlights the way Anderson Barbata has integrated into her work The Brooklyn Jumbies, a group of stilt dancers from the West Indies and West Africa living in Brooklyn and more recently collaborating with Los Zancudos de Zaachila from Oaxaca, Mexico. By uniting these two living traditions and working alongside them, Anderson Barbata bridges continents, cultures and communities creating astonishing work that melds contemporary art and cultural heritage practices. A related exhibition, ‘Carnival and Masqerades in a Worldwide Perspective’, will be held at the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen and Afrika Museum in The Netherlands, November 2016-April 2017.