Barbara’s research-driven methodology uses digital maps and historical documents with a utilitarian (dis)regard for aesthetics and materials. She brings the visual vocabulary of urban planning and architecture to works of sculpture, public art, and printmaking. As an artist, she acts as a liaison between these data-driven fields and the public; she makes highly complex systems tangible through visual, non-technical language in a way that’s both informative and empowering for participants.

Regional Planning Lab considers the rural landscape of Rosendale in symbiotic relationship to its dense metropolitan sister, New York City, and addresses the intricate structures that physically, socially, and politically compose environments. Her five-week public art residency will culminate in a mural on WSW’s construction site and in two community workshops that invite the public to learn about and cast cement.
“I’m seeing it as a beautiful coming-together,” she says. “The cement comes from here; it has a history, and it’s connected through the river. For me, coming here is like a spiral.” Barbara has been casting concrete objects for decades. As a sculptor visiting this former cement town, she pays homage to the utilitarian material that has been foundational to her work for so long.