artist statement

My research-based interdisciplinary work is grounded in diasporic Jewish spirituality, political solidarity, and eco-mysticism. I use material and symbolic metaphors (salt, water, fabric, safety pins, vessels, pomegranates) to explore grief, ancestral memory, land connection and solidarity. At home in multi-media installation, my projects span performance, sound, sculpture, alternative photographic processes, textiles, video, and social practice.

In my MFA thesis Dreams of Melting Ice, I discovered a way of working with water by melting ice on cyanotype-treated fabric. Inspired by my experiences in Minneapolis during the winter of 2026, I found refuge in water as a theory for global communication and solidarity*. This body of work led me to an ongoing exploration of alternative water photography through wet cyanotypes. I am drawn to the way this medium allows me to capture the movement of water, a record and a reference for how our water bodies might flow toward collective liberation. My previous research-based work with salt finds its way into these experiments as well. I enjoy surrendering control to the variables of changing seasons and elemental forces of fire, water, earth and wind.

Most of our bodies and our entire planet are made of this life-nurturing teacher, who cycles through us across space, time and species. The same water in our bodies and lakes and rivers now made up the bodies of all of our ancestors, and will be in all of our descendants. Water defies the arbitrary borders of our nation-states and facilitates communication for a global network of life.

In the face of rising fascism, escalating wars, and policies that threaten life on the planet, how might Water guide our rebellion? My work invites the viewer to give way to the healing wisdom of our individual and collective water-bodies.

*Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps for the Times Ahead played a major influential role in how I am currently thinking about water.

About RIV

Riv (they/them) is a queer mixed-lineage Ashkenazi interdisciplinary artist, educator and Kohenet (ecofeminist Jewish ritual leader). Riv received an MFA in Visual Studies from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and serves as Managing Director of the Twin Cities Jewish Renewal Community. Blending the roles of Educator, Priestess and Artist, Riv is dedicated to sharing the wisdom and the medicine of their Jewish ancestors through adaptive, accessible, and liberatory means.