Eternal Harmony (2024)
- Partners for Historical Justice
- Jan 16
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 21
Title
Eternal Harmony (2024)
Artist
Joel Bergner (Joel Artista)
Location
2018 Shannon Place SE (2000 block of Martin Luther King Jr Ave, SE) overlooking the same parking lot as El Mac’s Unique: Eternal Light
Artists statement
Joel Bergner’s “Eternal Harmony”, located in Anacostia, Washington, D.C., is a celebration of the intricate connections and interdependence between humanity and the natural world. At the heart of the mural, a commanding figure of a man—Barbushe Maina, an artist and community leader from Nakuru, Kenya—is seamlessly merged with a roaring bear. This fusion symbolizes the duality of peaceful strength and raw power. Barbushe, whom Bergner collaborated with during a mural project in Kenya earlier this year, is honored for his role as a cultural pillar in his community.
On the left, a bird with soulful, human-like eyes reflects the shared essence of life across species, while flourishing plant life weaves its way throughout the mural, representing growth and interconnection. On the right, a tender juxtaposition of a young girl and a baby deer highlights the purity and wonder of the youngest beings in both the human and natural worlds. The girl is a portrait of the artist’s 4-year-old daughter, a personal homage to innocence and beauty.
Abstract expressions and flowing calligraphy-style designs wind through the piece, evoking the unseen forces that bind all living things together. Through its dynamic imagery and symbolic layers, “Eternal Harmony” invites viewers to reflect on the profound unity that exists between humans and the natural world, urging us to honor and protect this fragile balance.
See the artist’s video
Read about Barbusha Maina at
Prompts for closer looking:
Consider the eyes of the animal and human figures in the work: the eye of the bird, the bespectacled eyes of the Kenyan artist Barbushe Maina, the eye of the bear, the eyes of the deer, and the eyes of the artist’s daughter. How are their eyes alike and different? What might this suggest about the powers and forces that link us all, across global webs of multispecies interdependence?
Consider the color links between the two human figures and their adjacent animals; the artist Barbushe’s beard merges into the fur coat of the bear, and the blue that links the deer and the young girl. What might be suggested about the intimate relationship between people and animals: are we perhaps seeing each person’s spirit-animal companion?
What is the impact of the complex blue design to the left of the head of the Kenyan artist Berbushe Maina? Is his imagination, signaled by the pencil with which he draws and writes, perhaps conjuring up the vision before us, including the interdependent weave of life between plants, animals and humans the world over?
Note how the artist has incorporated the ventilation grid in the lower part of the wall, balancing the central Kenya artist figure over it. Might there be some meaning to the use of this architectural element? Are we encouraged, like the building, to breathe in and out as we ponder all our interconnections to all living things, near and far?
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