Mocra Voices

Multi-disciplinary artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons came to Saint Louis University in March 2013 to deliver The Kristen Peterson Distinguished Lecture in Art and Art History. Her talk, titled “Rituals and Spirituality in the Performative Photographic Work of Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons,” concerned her exploration of themes of separation, fragmentation, and memory through multiple artistic disciplines. The day before her talk, Campos-Pons sat down with MOCRA Director Terrence Dempsey, S.J., and Dr. Olubukola Gbadegesin, Assistant Professor of Art History and African-American Studies at Saint Louis University, for a rich and varied discussion of Campos-Pons' work as an outgrowth of her life experiences and passions, as well as her work’s place in the wider context of diaspora art. Campos-Pons notes, “I am always in awe of the extent of mystery that is there present in our surroundings . . . I see myself not just as an artist but a healer, a messenger dispensing small amulets of good energies to my viewers and