Screen Print Projects
Costal Borderlands: Between Sea and Life, Handmade abaca paper, mulberry paper, screen print, photographs sourced from Google Earth, 2024
In this body of work, Barrios creates sculptural screen prints in the form of handmade paper-cast cinder blocks, which stand in as symbols of the various border wall infrastructures found across the globe. These cinder blocks serve as physical and metaphorical representations of barriers—dividing land, the ocean, people, and histories while also revealing the tensions and negotiations that define borderlands.
Barrios’ use of open-source Google Earth images to depict the Tijuana/San Diego coastal borderlands brings into focus the systems of surveillance and control embedded in these geopolitical spaces. By recontextualizing imagery intended for monitoring, the work questions how place is shaped not only by geography but also by the technologies that surveil and define it. These technologies, often presented as tools of safety, instead expose a deeper narrative about control, visibility, and power in contested spaces.
Using printmaking methods, Barrios' artwork connects to the rich historical tradition of printmaking as a tool of resistance and as a medium for social and political commentary.
Global Wake Up Call Goes To Voicemail is made up of handmade abaca cast cinderblocks , single layer screen prints, and text that is flocked with southern California beach sand. 62" x 7.5" x 11", 2022
The handmade paper cast cinder blocks mimic concrete cinder blocks which are a common building material used in the construction of seawalls. Beach sand, a main ingredient of concrete, is the most consumed natural resource on the planet apart from water. Coincidentally, the material that is used along coastlines to keep back the ocean is made from materials that come from the ocean.
Living Shoreline In A Day, multilayered screen print, fabric dye, 2023
Moments of light captured in a day at the living shoreline are recreated and imagined using photographic screen print and fabric dye techniques. A layer of text recounts stories from people who have been personally impacted by the changing coastline. Barrios utilizes analog and digital photography methods in her practice as a way of record keeping when on site of the place she is making work about and as a way of remembering a place she is not physically near.
MIAD Prints Series, 2022
This print series was created while at the MIAD Prints 2022 artist residency. MIAD Prints is an exciting printmaking event taking place September 26 – October 1, 2022. Twelve artists are invited to spend one week at MIAD producing one of a kind prints (monoprints) in collaboration with students. Students will have the opportunity to assist and work alongside each artist. At the end of the week, there will be an exhibition and reception for faculty, staff and students, as well as the public, to view the work created during the residency. Two choice prints from each artist will be donated to MIAD and auctioned to raise funds for student scholarships. MIAD Prints aims to bring together a diverse group of artists in terms of gender, race, age and cultural background.
