River Cramer Wharton is a social practice artist committed to community building through creative practice, the natural world, and vulnerability.
They believe if we are honest about where we want to land, we can dream together on how we want to get there.
Inspired by ritual, games, schoolrooms, public bathrooms, fluidity, transience, and holding hands, their simple wish is to build something we can all call home.
Ultimately, a dream house has no end, but a thousand beginnings.
Selected Works
PROJECTS
Keep Coming Back
kcb 1 - nye 2022
a small group of us, maybe 8, washed away our year before on nye 2022. sending behind 3 things we wanted to leave in the past, we burned away the year and wrote down what we wanted to bring in for the year to come.
kcb 2 - february 2023
12 of us gathered in my apartment to make self care zines. i taught everyone how to make flutter books, we each made one on self care, and then i printed copies so we could take home each other’s zines.
kcb 3 - may 2023
the last one i did in my apartment. we had 25 at one point. we made joy boxes (containers to write down things we’ve accomplished) and i created a confessional booth for things we have a hard time letting go of. we tied all of our confessions to balloons and let them go into the air.
kcb 4 - august 2023
40 of us met at cheesman park. clay brought costumes. i broke everyone up into five teams each with a section from bill’s story in the big book of alcoholics anonymous. the teams came together with props and the script to build a scene. we lit candles and each team acted out their part at dusk in the park.
kcb 5 - november 2023
in a rented venue, we created a multiroom board game called "trudging the road of happy destiny." the event ended with a variety show showing off skills learned in sobriety.
kcb 6 - june 2024
more will be revealedthis iteration was a once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in the MORE WILL BE REVEALED game show. the show had 3 segments where contestents faced off with each other and our pet puppet rat deacon. games included pulling daisies from a field. hosted by grace & dignity.
Reciprocal Works Zine Exchange
2019 - Present
- Palimpsest :: February 2023
- Imaginary Meadow :: February 2022
- Held Together :: March 2021
- Never Alone :: August 2020
- Reciprocal :: February 2020
- Longer Days :: August 2019
Still Chill
- @ Monolight :: 2018 - 2019
- @ Fort Greene Bar :: May 2022 - Present
{Dream House}
CURATION
Monolight Gallery
- Harper :: Photography :: October 2018
- Thais Glazman :: Collage and Oil :: December 2018
- Emily Ritz :: Large Scale Oil Painting :: March 2019
- Kit Ramze :: Photography :: May 2019
WORKSHOPS
Adventure in Nature Journaling and Writing!
Website Toolkit: DIY skills for sharing your creative work online
WRITING
& NORTH
FELLOW MAGAZINE
PURE GREEN MAGAZINE
LIFE & THYME
ILLUSTRATION
Morphology of Us :: IndyInk Gallery :: (interview transcript)
Illustrations and Interviews for Hudson River Exchange
Video: Brian Eno - Mistaken Memories Of Mediaeval Manhattan