Press Information for Water Stories
Information and photos pertaining to Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis exhibition may be found below. Photos are strictly for press use and must include appropriate caption and credit information, as indicated below.
The exhibition, Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis, on view at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, illuminates the cultural, religious, and political significance of water—beyond an extractive commodity framework—and draws attention to the legacy of colonial rule and imperialism in the climate crisis. Water Stories presents new works from two contemporary women artists with other works drawn from the collections of the Harvard Art Museums and the Peabody Essex Museum. Together, the pieces tell stories of water experiences that treat water, not as a resource to exploit, but as a life-giving and life-dissolving, inert but innately alive spiritual force—a notion shared widely among Indigenous communities, including those in the Global South, which is disproportionately affected by the climate crisis.
Visit the exhibition webpage and the companion website for the exhibition.
Participating artists include Atul Bhalla (b. 1964, New Delhi, India), Alia Farid (b. 1985, Kuwait), Evelyn Rydz (b. 1979, Miami, Florida), M.F. Husain (b. 1915, Pandharpur, India–d. 2011, London, United Kingdom), and artists once known in South Asia.
Organized by Jinah Kim, Johnson-Kulukundis Family Faculty Director of the Arts, Harvard Radcliffe Institute; George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art and professor of South Asian studies, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Please contact Mac Daniel at mac_daniel@radcliffe.harvard.edu with any questions.
Download High-Resolution Images
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![View of gallery with Water Stories exhibition]()
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Installation view, Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis (2023). Image courtesy of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, photo by Julia Featheringill.
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![View of gallery with Water Stories exhibition]()
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Installation view, Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis (2023). Image courtesy of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, photo by Julia Featheringill.
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![View of gallery with Water Stories exhibition]()
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Installation view, Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis (2023). Image courtesy of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, photo by Julia Featheringill.
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![View of gallery with Water Stories exhibition]()
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Installation view, Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis (2023). Image courtesy of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, photo by Julia Featheringill.
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![View of gallery with Water Stories exhibition]()
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Installation view, Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis (2023). Image courtesy of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, photo by Julia Featheringill.
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![Five framed gallery images surround two metal jars on display podium]()
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Installation view, Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis (2023). Image courtesy of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, photo by Julia Featheringill.
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![Art installation of large paper parts that resemble water dripping from the ceiling and pooling on the floor]()
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Evelyn Rydz, Outflux (2023). Archival pigment prints. Courtesy of the artist and Ellen Miller Gallery, photograph by Julia Featheringill.
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![Cluster of people on open wooden boats in still waters]()
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Jinah Kim and Cara Buzzell, Water Stories: Triveni Sangam, Allahabad (Prayagraj), India, January 3, 2023. Digital image. Photo courtesy of Harvard Radcliffe Institute.
