Warfare of Art & Law Podcast
Warfare of Art and Law Podcast sparks conversation about the intriguing – and sometimes infuriating – stories that arise in the worlds of art and law with artist and attorney Stephanie Drawdy.
Warfare of Art & Law Podcast
Israeli Artist Ronit Levin Delgado on Activist Art after 7 October and Art's Power to Heal & Bring Cultural Repair
Show Notes:
1:30 background
2:45 shift to add activist element to her art
4:00 response to 7 October 2023 during residency at LMCC
5:30 ‘artivism’
5:45 workshop at Israeli American Council event
6:45 Rosh Hashanah gift for families of hostages
9:00 how her work facilitates justice
12:30 defining justice through recognition and healing
13:20 work as a curator to connect voices
13:50 “Artists on Antisemitism” exhibition
15:00 co-curated with director of Jewish Art Salon
15:40 LA-based artist Marina Heinze included in exhibition
15:45 Joan Roth
17:30 Ronit’s “David” kisses painting included in exhibition
19:40 Chai meaning alive
19:50 use of technology in her work as a bridge for global participation
21:40 heat-activated work that shows happiness levels like mood rings
23:25 Stefania Salles Bruins: connection between art and justice making whole
26:00 work by Marina Heinze in Artists on Antisemitism exhibition
27:10 other exhibitions she has curated
27:50 work in the antisemitism exhibition
28:40 fellowship in Germany in collaboration with German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) - art's importance in memory and justice
29:00 urgency of keeping the Holocaust alive in the conversation today
29:45 murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska
30:00 to hold and carry memory forward to inspire vigilance and resilence
30:40 artists as witnesses of our time and responsibility to be an activist
32:00 “Wandering Jew” project for 2026 Jerusalem Biennale
34:00 Drawdy’s definition of justice
34:50 Drawdy’s focus on stories to highlight
35:20 Alan Robertshaw’s comments
36:00 art speaking for itself
36:50 “Written in Water” and “Project Forgiveness” - 2018 NY Spring/Break
Please share your comments and/or questions at stephanie@warfareofartandlaw.com
Music by Toulme.
To hear more episodes, please visit Warfare of Art and Law podcast's website.
To leave questions or comments about this or other episodes of the podcast and/or for information about joining the 2ND Saturday discussion on art, culture and justice, please message me at stephanie@warfareofartandlaw.com.
Thanks so much for listening!
© Stephanie Drawdy [2025]
October 7. I heard people, friends, peers saying that they're, for example, afraid to wear, you know, territory stars. Me says exactly the opposite. Just put like three. So how you can take that and basically it's about resilience and make that into joy and happiness. And that's exactly what I want to receive from my heart, from the identity from everyone. Thank you so much for having me.
SPEAKER_01:If you would kind of share a bit about your background and what brought you into employing art to speak to issues around activism.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, hi. So my name is Reniklim Delgado. I'm an Israeli uh artist. Originally, um so I came from Israel on a Fulbright to do my master's, and originally I'm coming from more painting background, but then when I came here to do my thesis, my my practice shifted towards more multidisciplinary and multimedia. Um, and then I felt especially as um, you know, I all my family is in Israel, and um here when I was here and um meeting new people, new cultures. Also, I have to say that my background is in um multi-uh cultural. My mom um was uh immigrated from Moldova to Israel and my dad from Paraguay. Um so a lot of also different languages and coming to America with all those uh new cultures and new people. Um very eclectic, very um also as a person with ADHD, and by the way, I wrote uh so I wrote uh some uh notes so I could um answer um more focusedly. Um so my you're asking how uh my work became more activism, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like uh you at some point had you I read that you shifted from uh the art and then adding the activist element to it, and if you would kind of speak to that and what brought you to that and and how your work has been influenced.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so my my project, like I said, when it shifted into um multidisciplinary and more performance installations, we're inviting um people, participant to uh engage and to interact. So um turning private acts uh into communal rituals and gillian and joy, um those are both preservation and resistance. It's a way uh to create justice through uh uh presence and tenderness. And also for me, this is how activism is to engage with the people, to have them also shift in and looking um at different situations, different um history, different memories in a through a different way through engagement, and kind of forcing them joy and happiness. So for me that kind of uh shifted, but the thing that you're talking about that you read um came unfortunately after October 7 when I completely, as of course I'm sure for everybody else, it's uh it hit really hard as Israeli that all my my family and and friends, um childhood friends are there. Um I was um an art resident at LMCC, and um I could not function, I could not work in my studio. So all I could uh all I could think of is how I can help, right? And and the hostages. So basically, first I became an activist, then I thought how how I can merge the the two and how for me art succeeds in something that law, for example, sometimes fail, which is art is about feeling, art is about uh experience. So then through performance art and active performances, and also I was very much active in and in the posters, and I'm friends with uh the two Israeli artists who um designed the posters, the poster of the hostages, right, kidnapped. And then I brought those also as new materials to my work, both as installations, both as um sculptures, um, and also as arts, arts, artivists. And that's how um I became, or somebody else actually called me that uh in the in an article, and then I adopted this uh title.
SPEAKER_01:Recently you mentioned you had done, I believe it was a workshop at an event. Was it the Israeli American Council?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know uh anything about that workshop, and I didn't know if it might be appropriate to share some about that kind of work that you're doing currently.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, thank you. I was very excited to be invited to um create this art workshop. Initially, it was they invited um Avram Infeld, who is um the founder of Hillel and also um Birthright. And it was uh um uh uh an event for club members only, for their um board members, and then they wanted to invite an Israeli artist to create a communal, a collab, and I created a collaborative project where basically I invited everybody for the upcoming. We have uh a Rosh Hana, which is the new new year. Um, so everybody contributed a design of pomegranate, um, of blessing, of wishes, and basically it was like a big neural um that they were going to gift to the families of the hostages families forum in Israel. So that was very moving uh to create this gift from everyone here in New York that we're thinking about them. We'll never we we will never forget. We trying to do our best, sending our thoughts, prayers. That's unfortunately all we can do right now. But through this gesture of art and through this uh mutual community and creative together, um very happy. I did not send you images of that, but if you want, I will, because I was very happy to see what people uh created, and it it brought them joy and happiness, and that's ultimately what I I wish to achieve with my art.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, and yeah, I would love to see them. And was this the first kind of workshop like this you've done, or have you done other workshops in the past that you'd want to share about?
SPEAKER_03:So I am uh so I'm I'm I'm a multidisciplinary artist, I'm also an art educator, so I do um sometimes create artworks. I do like to tailor it to a specific theme. Um, but I feel like uh also in some in uh the exhibitions that I do. For example, I had um a solo show at Grace Exhibition Space, and then I invited um I love collaboration, collaboration is a big part of my uh of my art to be the together, like I said, the experience, to feel, to be in the now. Um and I created, I remember this example, I collaborated with um this person who creates uh somatic healing rituals and how uh through uh so just engage different disciplines, different into the same purpose, which is healing and bringing joy and happiness or for people to think and to reflect, to look inside, not just the outside. So yeah, I think workshops um are very important um for art, for for engagement, for community, to yeah, to reach larger, broader community.
SPEAKER_01:You'd referenced justice a bit ago, and I wanted to circle back to that. Do you have thoughts about how your work facilitates justice or addresses injustice?
SPEAKER_03:Uh for me, uh first of all, justice is just it's not just uh about legal, right? And not just about punishment or laws or uh systems, it's emotional and also cultural repair. It's about making the invisible, a bringing uh bridge to bring in platform for everybody to share their voices, to be seen, to be heard. And that's why also uh when I create my uh my installations, my experience, my my um interactive performances, this is for me just justice, right? Um tikunolam, that's also something that we have uh in in Judaism, repairing the world. So my work tries to uh contribute to that repair through intimacy, through tenderness, resilience. Um, and I do think that my work facilitates um justice by by making people pause, connect, uh, reflect, engage not just with my the my work or the work, but also with themselves, with each other, um, people that they don't know. My work uh invites everybody to participate, no matter where they come from. Um and whether it's uh through touching, touching uh a heat-activated sculptures or through the kissing painting that I do, where the kiss actually acts as a trace, as a symbol for not just for a person, right? A voice, where our voice comes from, but also it's part of our physicality and something ephemeral that you can capture. Um, but people experience vulnerability and intimacy. So in that moment, they see themselves and other differently. Um, so I see that as a small act of justice that resort in um dignity, empathy, connection, and memory.
SPEAKER_01:Did that perspective, have you always had that, or was that in the last few years as well that that's come up for you?
SPEAKER_03:I feel like my art always was inspired by empathy and connections. This is something that I always strive for, right? To have something that long-lasting what people will feel when they see, when in when they engage, when they interact with my um with my art. Um so I see it as um not just restored balance, uh, address pain, um, trauma. At first it started as personal trauma, and I believe every artist, right, they take inspiration from their first from their own uh personal experience, but then um use the artist as a catalyst to talk about the broader situation, the world, right? Everybody, because we all the human experience, we all have the same, no matter where you come from, everybody, everybody cries, everybody um pain, right? Uh has the same pain. So I feel that my work started from shifted from self-expression to talking about um the human experience and more uh larger.
SPEAKER_01:Do you have a particular definition of justice that you have come to over your career?
SPEAKER_03:So uh for me right now it's about recognition of every individual humanity and creating spaces where people feel seen and feel safe and valued when voices are often silenced and can be seen and heard. Um that's why my my my work uh is focused on intimacy and touch, bringing people together, um, and also um healing, because healing is a form of justice for me. So it's like I said, it's not just about the legal, um, it's about the visibility, acknowledgement, and healing. So yeah, uh just happens when stories are told.
SPEAKER_01:And I I think you touched earlier on or mentioned uh or referenced cultural repair, and I love that. It's so beautiful. So thank you for sharing that. So now uh perhaps we shift to your work as a curator, and if you would share a bit about that.
SPEAKER_03:So for me, so first I'm I see myself first as an artist, but I see being a curator uh also as a form of art making. Um I see being a curator as connector, connecting between between different, bringing together different voices, people from different cultures, different different countries, different different ages, different backgrounds, um, to talk about a specific uh a specific theme, right? And the the show is called Artists on Antisemitism. It was last year um during the summer. Uh it started when I won um a fellowship from uh Kojeco and the UJA, um Artist on Antisemitism. That was the name of the fellowship uh in a grant, and then I had to come up with a project, and basically what I what I wanted to do after I experienced again after October 7, it was it was not it was really difficult time to be not just uh again a Jewish um artist um who was born in Israel, um, but you know, artist. Um so I wanted to focus on bringing voices, different opinion, bringing platform, basically bringing this safe space as a healing place, right? For everybody just to listen, just to be there for each other, just to hear uh each other's experience, but also I was very intrigued in different uh views about anti-Semitism. So after I won this grant, I was also a board member uh of the Jewish Arts Salon, so I contacted the director, and then together we decided, no, I decided first I wanted to to create uh an exhibition, but then um with her, so then it was um uh I co-created, and then we also contacted uh the gallery, 81 Leonard Gallery in Tribeca, um to create this uh this exhibition. The exhibition was was very uh meaningful in the way that it continued to exhibit in different uh different around the world actually. And when we chose the artist, it was specifically artists from different backgrounds, ages, um, countries. You see, Marina that doesn't live in New York, for example, we had artists from Israel, artists from Europe, artists um also different ages. So, for example, one of the artists, John Roth, um, was in our 80s, um, how exhibited uh photos in black and white, on how anti-Semitism in Russia or um um Ukraine, how it started, the roots, and unfortunately, just to show that you know, right now, yeah, we don't, I guess, yeah, um learn from history, her her story, but um but that's how the exhibition formed, and also we wanted to show um different perspectives in terms of uh different views, so both serious tone and also maybe sarcastic, maybe funny, maybe just just to bring because uh art is telling a story, right? Instead of reading a book about um, I know we all study that in in in in school and university about anti-Semitism, which can be uh um for some uh uh heavy and and you know not so so interesting. This is way more a way that more much more uh intriguing and uh just a visual way for people to engage. So fortunately we had uh a lot of visitors coming, not just Jewish, it was open to all. Also, um the artists weren't all Jewish, it's just um uh your thought, your take on anti-Semitism. So that's how this uh exhibition formed.
SPEAKER_01:Did you have a piece in the exhibition as well?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I had my um my David, uh, which is basically um a star of David from made all from from kisses. And this is for me exactly the idea of justice, how you can reclaim um reclaim a symbol that maybe connect to something something heavy, may right now something that is a bit controversial, I would say. But what I really love about about Judaism, and I'm not a religious person at all. Um I didn't uh bring up um um religious or or anything. Um I'm I'm just Israeli, but uh culturally observed. But what I do love about Judaism, and this is something that I first explored during my residency um in LMCC, is the themes of joy and happiness. Muchachim liotzameh must be happy, something that no matter how our nation, how many traumas and how many um hardships um and challenges, no matter what, always have to be happy. It's a mitzvah, it's a good deed, you have to. Um and yeah, just like any trauma, you know, you cannot, everybody has trauma. Everybody, unfortunately, some has more, some some less. Um, collective trauma, personal trauma, you cannot, you know, you cannot control that. But what you can control is um yourself and your perspective. And instead of being pessimist, I want my art to be optimist. I want to to bring light. I know it sounds cheesy, but you know what? If I can, and this is this is the best compliment I I get uh uh when people experience my art, that it makes them happy, it can it gives them hope, it gives them joy. And yeah, I don't see it as naive, I see it as um as as strong, as something strong that despite, and this is actually justice for joy, that despite everything, no, we're gonna be happy, uh we're gonna be happy, we're going to be strong. And the following artwork that I did after David, the star of David is high. High in Hebrew means um alive. So no matter what, we are alive or a kicking, everybody should should feel feel alive, lively.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for sharing that. It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_03:Uh, one of your questions was also about technology, right? And how I can also invite uh technology in my art. So um some of my works I I see I see technology, not about it, it's not about screens, but it's about extending human touch. And basically, I invite technologies um as a medium and as a bridge. For example, I had uh one of my uh projects, I asked people to send uh photos of their kisses, so then I can use that um in my in my work and transform that into live digital uh painting that projected. So uh technology uh allows to expand uh intimacy and collaboration across uh distance, uh creating global participation. Because, like I said, for me it's it's global right now. It doesn't matter your religion. Yes, I'm happening to be Jewish, and this right now it's very controversial apparently. Um but um I just I don't want to see, I see people as people. And for me, art is about insisting on hope, uh, even when the world feels unfortunately uh fractured. Um, every every work that I do, whether it's uh participating, whether it's leaving a kiss on a canvas or a brush stroke or touch. I also bring um the heat activated, uh for example in serotin and feel yourself where people touch. Um it also involves leather and and digital and technology, which I cannot um I cannot share my secret, but basically when you touch it, it shows you, it gives you a gauge on your happiness levels. And then I also have a level key, kind of like uh you know, when uh there was the um yeah, I see that Stephanie nodding. I forgot what its name, you know. The wood ring. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So I love that. I was fascinated by that. Um as a kid, it didn't come to us uh when I came here um to the US, and for me it was a magic, and I love those magical moments, and I want to bring that uh also to to my art, but also to kind of make uh to make my my viewers think introspective with themselves, hopefully think of of ways to um hire their um joy, happiness. Um but every performance is a reminder of intimacy, care, and imagination that can be act of uh resistance and renewal. Um my my um at the heart of my work is that every simple belief that even at the time of challenges art can heal, our art should be there to connect, remind us that of our shared humanity, shared experience. We all experience the same, we all hope for the same, hopefully for you know peace and everybody to be uh loved and spread light. And yeah, and don't be afraid to connect with yourself, with your others, with your neighbor neighbors. Don't be afraid if they're coming from different uh you know, religion, race, um, country, accent, um, yeah, with yourself and with the world. So that's uh I hope that my art inspires uh to for people to be more open and happy.
SPEAKER_01:And uh a reminder, anyone who has questions, comments, thoughts, please feel free to jump in. Stefania.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, hi, hi Rani. Uh it's really nice to meet you and I get to know your work and it's very inspiring. I I don't know if you intended it, this connection between justice and art, but if I understood you correctly and like how you described art, and do you see the art you make to be healing and to make people happier? Yeah, it sounds simple, but it's actually really complex. And how you describe justice as like making whole, if I'm quoting you correctly, which I really love that sort of complex definition of justice. And to me, it looks like art and justice to you both kind of accomplish the same thing. And I was wondering if I understood that correctly and if you could speak more about that because it's such a beautiful thought.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you so much. Um yes, you did uh you did quote me, quote me well. Um you know, justice was um at first about fairness, but then but then my this this notion has evolved, right? Because there is no such thing as as apparently as fairness. Everybody comes from from different perspectives, and everybody um has their thoughts, and and right now justice, you know. I mean, I don't need to even tell you about that right now. I really don't want to um uh talk politics, what what what you think justice is, right? Because my work ultimately is about being human beings, you humanity. And that's why even when I did the works after October 7 about the hostages, I kept I kept saying it's not about the government, it's not about it's just simply about human beings, about people. And healing that hate also, you know, yes, the pain of us, of our nation. We just want, and that was uh something so beautiful that everybody come together as a prayer, as a prayer-sending um blessing and and wishes for for for everybody to come back safe. And and yes, none of um um innocent lives should be should be killed no matter where you're from. Again, no nobody's life is is is is is more, right? Um, everybody, we all um we all have mom and dad, right? We all have or or dad and dad and mom and dad. You know what I mean? We all have parents. And um so yeah, my my justice for me became about healing, um, and like you said, um making whole what is broken.
SPEAKER_02:So really beautiful. I love how you have thought through all of this and how you describe it like this.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Reneet, going back to the anti-Semitism exhibition that you curated last year, could you describe the the piece that you included, I believe, by Marina Heinze?
SPEAKER_03:It was um, I don't want to butcher the title because it was uh a year ago, uh, but basically it was um the Kanya, she she took the um shoes of of Kanya West, right? And she used that as um um like I said, we we took some serious versus versus com not comical, but but you know, look and I feel like our uh humor is is very important talking about um serious um you know thoughts. Um yeah, and sarcastic. I'm thinking Seinfeld now. But um, so yeah, so she made uh a portrait um of Kanye West uh from um the shoes and but but it didn't look like Kanye West. You had to, it looked like both Kanye West and um you had to to come to come closer because you know she used materials in a very beautiful, unique way, and it's very large installation. I also wanted to talk about future uh about futures. So that was uh one one project, but now I would want to continue um to um to also curate. It was not the first uh uh curatorial work that I did. I curated before. Um that was the first time that I added my work, just because all the other curators also added their own work, but I didn't curate it. My I didn't use the work. I was actually, it was on anonymous, so uh to be fair, right? Talking about justice.
SPEAKER_01:Any other points about that exhibition you wanted to share?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we had uh from so my work was there to to bring joy and to to to br to to you know uplift the mood and and uh this, but there were also works that that were sad, right? That were talking, yes, uh, about the about this painful or about of course the Holocaust um some were there too, the references. One I remember painting um was uh I think from from from from the Holocaust Museum in Germany. Um you spoke, uh you I remember by the way, you asked me also about uh the Holocaust um um connection and the same fellowship. So so the Kojeko also, I I um after after I won this, uh I got this uh this fellowship. Also, I did um a fellowship in Germany itself um where it was about anti-Semitism. So basically it was in collaboration with DAD, D A A D. And we went to Berlin, we saw um we had this strip of learning about not just about the history, but basically about the current um Jewish life in Germany. And um, you know what I remember the most was was the art, the monuments, the museum. Um just to show you how art is uh important in memory and justice, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes. And what would you say about the relevance and the urgency of keeping the Holocaust alive in the conversation today?
SPEAKER_03:I mean, unfortunately, it feels urgent than ever right now, um, with the rise of anti-Semitism and other um haters in the world worldwide, when people just uh murdering people um just because just because they can, but my heart broke about the the uh Ukrainian uh refugee um who just you know just just got murdered, or when people just get murdered from thinking differently, right? For different uh thoughts. Um but the Holocaust is a constant remember. For what happens when dehumanization goes unchecked. And through art, I am to carry the memory forward, not just as a trauma, passive, but also moving forward. And that the responsibility that holds to hold memory in a way that inspires vigilance and also resilience. So yeah, the alcus is not just a Jewish memory, but a humanity conscience.
SPEAKER_01:What would you think then about describing artists as witnesses of our time?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, our artists are not, artists have uh uh such an important role because it's not just witnesses, but our responsibility is to act to act upon it and and like I said, and think of creative ways to not just to to um to preserve it, but also to uh act to be an activist and and have that as a tool, as a catalyst for action, um, through art and for people not just to remember but to also to feel, to engage. Um yeah, so that's why also I shifted my work from 2D to more to more immersive, to more different disciplines. So for me, my my medium, the process, is um determined by the the theme, by what I explore, but what I want to say. And yeah, that's why I don't see myself just you know as a painter, even though I started as a as a painter. Um I came here and I was the art assistant um of artist uh Mir Hod when I uh concluded my Fulbright. Um but then like I said, uh life events and yeah, shifted my uh my art.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, thank you so much. Is there are there other points that I have not asked you about that you want to touch on?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I just wanted to to mention my upcoming um shows or project that I'm working on. So right now I'm I'm developing um new project from the 2026 uh Jerusalem Biennale that um um my curator, the same curator that we went uh two years ago uh to be uh to the Biennale, and I sent you a few photos uh from that work. Um so woohoo, that's uh uh right now my my big my big news because it's uh I'm very very excited uh to be part of it. And um my my work is my new work that I'm developing. It's it's called um Wandering Jew, and it's about, and I will include also the the plant uh wandering you and um continue to live in intimacy and justice from from New York to Jerusalem because it's in Jerusalem. But um it's about a collective act of healing and renewal um in the performance that um also will be open to the uh participant. Um with the participant uh from um they will help me to uh a durational performance embodying resilience through elemental uh movement, breathe, and healing. And I'm going to quote uh from um I believe Kabbalah from the wound, light flows, healing, resilience, renewal. So that's something that's um my next project.
SPEAKER_01:I'm excited to see how you incorporate the plant into wondering Jew or kiss the wound.
SPEAKER_03:I'm thinking I'm still thinking of it, but it's all going to come together. Um and yeah, and to talk also about this. Um I did have um a question for you, uh Stephanie. I don't know if uh I'm just curious. Uh I know you asked in your um the the guests what their definition of justice. Um I'm curious to hear your definition and if had if it did involve or changed.
SPEAKER_01:Early on, when I started asking individuals their thoughts, one guest had described it as public love, and I just loved that, especially in law school. I think there was this preoccupation with the legal aspect of it. But after, thankfully, law school, I started to broaden my approach to it, and now it really is this fascination for me to look at every angle of justice. Historical really resonates with me, like bringing alive legacies of individuals, especially Stefania knows this, the legacies of female artists of our past who have been underappreciated and and almost obliterated from history. So giving them a voice and giving a voice to anyone who has been marginalized.
SPEAKER_03:I love that. It's also similar to what I said about so what what draws you to the stories that you choose?
SPEAKER_01:What's what's what makes you decide what's interests you what which topics are uh when I find an individual that really uh their work speaks to me if they're an artist, or I just love their message, or it's a message that I feel like hasn't been highlighted enough. I want to highlight it. Oh, and Alan?
SPEAKER_00:I I just love this because I have no artistic talent whatsoever, so I just like seeing other people's work, but I also because I I like you know, because art there's that stuff where you just like appreciate it just on an instant level. It's like great, but then it's also brilliant when you get to hear from the people who created the art, it just gives it a whole new perspective, and it's nice to sort of then revisit it. I mean, I must confess, I always like to come to art blind at first. You know, it's I don't want to hear anything about who did it, why they did it, what it's supposed to mean. It's like, what does it mean to me? And then it's really nice when you hear somebody afterwards sort of going, Well, this is what it is, because sometimes you go, Oh, yeah, that makes sense. And other times you go, Oh, I've never even thought of that. But now I can see it. So, but that's why I love these little sessions.
SPEAKER_03:And Alan, I just want to uh echo what you said. I love what you said about about art being um to just speak for itself before you know all the background and everything. Um, that's exactly also uh in terms of justice. I want to give everybody the review, no matter who who did that, right? First look at the art, give it a chance, um, and then the the extra information just gives another uh layer. It's um just another um point of view. But but another uh compliment that that that I owe another feedback that I love receiving is that the art is not just visually aesthetically pleasing, but then you also have this uh conceptual layer that makes people think.
SPEAKER_01:So Renee, I believe you were also in a New York spring break show. Would you want to share a bit about that work?
SPEAKER_03:And this work was was um Project Forgiveness. I started I I showed um written on water. Um, and it was when back when I it was in 2018, I want to say. So yeah, it's been it's been a while. And it was before my shifting into activist and and artivist, and it was more when I focused on my um on my own trauma and my own healing, and you know, kind of want to share uh um so so my dad was for from Paraguay, and I have uh he left me and my twin brother when we were seven, so I haven't seen seen him, and he was a famous musician. Um, and um basically I I I I won a grant, and then I went to to um with a photographer to be my um doc the to do the documentary, and I went there for the first time, meeting um for the first time all of his family, my my half sibling, my my my uh my sister, my brother, my aunts, my everybody. Um so basically I did um a performance there when I was there, I performed to his song, um Besame mucho. Um but he unfortunately passed away when I was here. So um my exhibition there, it's called Project Forgiveness, and basically I forgive myself. Um because um one day when um when he did when when my my parents divorced and he went there, he did he wanted for me and my my brother to come visit, and I was so mad and I was so angry, you know, as a kid that he left and left raising without a dad. Um but then only when when you grow up who realized to look at parents as people, right? Just people, everybody is people no matter what. Um and I did have an opportunity to go and visit and he was waiting for me, but I got this the same the same summer, I also got the notification that I I got the second or third uh round of the Fulbright. And as you know, Fulbright is uh is you know very prestigious and uh um a great uh opportunity. So I did not go to Paraguay. I was supposed to go Burning Man, then Paraguay, but uh I didn't. But little did I know that he was dying. He didn't tell me. So I missed this opportunity and this um show, this exhibition that I did, Project Forgiveness and then Britain and Water was my gift for him, get my gift for myself, forgiving myself, talking about forgiveness. And again, healing and amusing artists.