The Hand Washing Project

The Hand Washing Project

This socially engaged project is a combination of public art, performance, video, and paintings meant to bridge barriers between individuals. By enlisting people to wash each others hands I'm trying to critique our contrived systems of injustice, prejudice, and notions of difference. This work is about highlighting the individuals interdependence to the rest of the world and creating videos and objects which display our interconnectedness.  

https://igg.me/at/thehandwashingproject/x/15647680

Nick Rivers @ MCAD- You are Invited! Tue. April 12th - Sun. April 18th ALL DAY/ALL NIGHT! "5 Day Fast [My Theses On Art]. A very special performance!

Greetings friends, colleagues, and professionals, I hope you are well! I wanted to share what I've been up to and let you know about a performance coming up in a few weeks! I am soon to complete my Masters In Fine Arts as an Inter-disciplinary artist and as a part of my thesis project to close out my time at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, I've decided to do a unique performance. I will be fasting for 5 days in a glass vitrine container. During this time I will write something of a personal art manifesto... what I am calling my "Theses on Art."

I felt inspired to do this piece because of other endurance artists such as David Blaine, Matthew Barney, Joseph Beuys, Ana Mendieta, and Chris Burden. These artists sought out something spiritual and profound, pushing themselves into uncomfortable places as a way to create profound experiences. By fasting and writing in a glass sculpture I've built, I hope to follow in these artists' footsteps. Please stop by to observe this experience.

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** You're Invited!

Nick Rivers @ MCAD Presents: 5 Day Fast [My Theses on Art] A durational performance on the grounds of MCAD April 12th - April 17th Sunset - Sunset

Nick Rivers. 2016 MFA Candidate

On Tuesday April 12th, as the sun begins to set, and outside on the grounds of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Nick Rivers will begin a five day fast inside a vitrine. Why? To feel something ‘greater than’ in the body, mind, and spirit. The box he will occupy for these five days is 3’x3’x6’ constructed of shattered glass, steel, and lumber.. While inside the artist will write his 'Theses on Art' following in the style of Wittgenstein's 1921 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

STOP BY MCAD ANYTIME BETWEEN SUNSET ON TUESDAY APRIL 12TH - SUNDAY APRIL 18TH.

Five Day Fast is a part of the artist’s continued exploration of experience within the body alongside the relationship between other and self. Endurance, sacrifice, and interdependence are themes in River’s work. During Five Day Fast the artist will be visible through panels of broken glass, but isolated from the outside world. While he writes, meditates, and contemplates, people may observe his experience, reflect on time, and consider their own experiences as part of a greater whole.

At sunset, On Sunday, at 8:01 pm, Nick Rivers will conclude his Five Day Fast. Please consider stopping by the main lawn of MCAD’s campus between Tuesday April 12th and Sunday April 17th. After the fasting, documentation of the performance, including Nick Rivers’ 'My Theses on Art', will be a part of MCAD’s MFA Thesis Exhibition Show. The opening reception of the thesis exhibition will take place the evening of May 13th, 2016. A limited number of copies of My Theses on Art will be available to the public during the opening reception. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

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5dayfast

** (http://nicholasseanrivers.us12.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=fdfacf53b7f807e5a5d620575&id=c3215d026c&e=4a29e35a39) ** (http://nicholasseanrivers.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fdfacf53b7f807e5a5d620575&id=afe2f06200&e=4a29e35a39) ** (mailto:nicholasseanrivers@gmail.com) ** (http://nicholasseanrivers.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fdfacf53b7f807e5a5d620575&id=35b852f723&e=4a29e35a39) Copyright © 2016 Nick Rivers www.nicholasseanrivers.com

Our mailing address is: 534 Laurel Ave. St. Paul. MN

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I was beside myself but untouchable

Cast light through shattered glass suspended in wood frame. This piece means to explore the temporal space between art object and viewer by placing the viewer into the reality of the art object.  

glass is what i've been doing.

I've been working with glass for the past 3 months. Understanding its essence. ITs rawness and how it relates to me as a person and an artist. This work has been about collapse, danger, force, weight and release. go to instagram and follow me to see more of this work. 

Torso/bird/cast concrete

Body & Object :(torso/bird/impression) : Sculptures  
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.   (torso/bird/impression) is two sculptures. Maybe it’s three sculptures. Maybe it’s one  piece. Maybe it’s three pieces. Maybe this is a multitude of drops assembled to make an ocean.  You gaze in one direction you will see two stone impressions of a male torso. They’ve been  stained with white paint. Gaze the other direction you will see the male torso. It’s been adorned  with wire and paper birds… about 600 of them.You scan the edges of your perception and  deconstruct the experience. Or maybe you don’t. Maybe you don’t care about this at all. And  that’s ok too.   So, this is the paper designed to tell you something poignant and useful about the  artwork. I’d prefer to politely decline, but one must make a record of all this making, mustn’t  one. Maybe I should remain factual, objective, and literal in my remarks. Maybe I should attempt  to win each of your hearts and minds, maybe I could buy your love. Could I buy your opinion?  Can I sell you mine?       Do any of these words really matter? You’ve already begun to populate the objects with  your narrative. You look at them and create your meanings. Your subjective gaze was born long  before you entered this room, long before you read this page. These precious little moments are  strung together like little birds on a wire. They fly into this moment. They fly beyond this  moment. All your little pieces have been packed inside your body and now they’re ready to  explode.  Ideas are objects in collision with one another. These two sculptures collide with one  another. The concrete rests, dead like weighted bodies at the bottom of ocean. The torso is  surrounded and swarmed. Look close at these birds. Try to fix upon one of them. Try to hold a  gaze on one little “bird moment.” Can it exist without the rest? Maybe it all exists  simultaneously.     I wanted to construct these pieces to explore the relationship between the body and the  object. I wanted to relate the “body” to an object which was reproduced in great multitudes. The  copy of a copy. In this way, the object transcends into hyper object. I cast this torso in 420lbs of  concrete so that the visual inflection of the “form” might resonate between the static moment and  the dynamic moment. I look at these pieces and feel a vibration.  

body as object : artist statement

Object and Form(Grass and Leg): Videos with Sculpture  
Pick up the pieces and put them together. Ideas are objects in collision with one another. Pick up the pieces. Put them together. Make up a story. No-thing more.  
How can I challenge the notion of an object? This is my fascination. As a visual artist my interest is in making objects and presenting them in spaces to create abstract narratives. Technology, nature, allegory, symbolism and the subconscious are woven together in this work. I’m interested in the relations between physical things and theoretical things. No-thing less.  
 This work pushes my understanding of what it means to be a thing. Where is the essence of the thing? In the sculpture and videos of Object and Form (Grass and Leg), I posed a simple question to myself and invite the viewer to do the same: how do two objects, in this case grasses and a mannequin leg, interact with one another and at what moment do they become one thing? I wanted to see the delicate grass overtake this mannequin form. I wanted to see how the form of a woman’s leg could be obscured, withdrawn and covered by another object. The grass has taken the form of the leg. The construction of the grass is governed by its relationship to the form of the leg. I like this idea. I like it very much. I like this relationship between object and form. No-thing else. 

working on my application to graduate school... who would have thought...

-- Regards,

Nick

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studio 512 2205 California St NE Minneapolis, MN 55418 (m) 651 726 4204

www.nicholasseanrivers.com nicholasseanrivers@gmail.com www.facebook.com/nicholas.s.rivers instagram.com/nicholasseanrivers www.pinterest.com/nicholasrivers/boards/

the dead leaves....

Well the fall approaches and here I am... the window remains open in the studio and i put wool stockings on. With art coming down in a few places, some new art will go up soon for me. Palmer's has asked me to be the artist of the month for November and a small gallery in Duluth, MN called OnTheRocks should be receiving some pieces as well. Not to mention a tentative Halloween Party in studio 512... all good things... 

 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Palmers-Bar/113396575359448  

https://www.facebook.com/ontherocksartstudio

a new adventure begins

for over 2 years i was the production manager for one of the largest additive manufacturers in the world. in other words 3d printing. it was a good job but it wasn't my calling. i always struggled with finding a creative voice in a very corporate environment. then a magical thing occurred... they let me go! so what is next for this artist? i guess that is the question and i certainly have many ideas. im excited to be able to focus more on my art but nervous to find financial security. my day job was my buffer for my passions though as many artists would know, it was also a hindrance to fully connecting to my creative voice.... i hope the future holds great opportunity for my new journey... have faith, work hard, open up to the universe.... 

a little hidden room

a little room

a porthole into a closet full of molded boxes and a coat hangar unattended. 

i'm a dreamcatcher

i'm in the isolated silence of memory

and you aren't there.  

you dont even show up rose

what does this mean? 

what does this mean?