The global patterns of rivers wrap around our planet like the tentacles of the world itself. 

Rivers are mirrors of the sky, tangled threads that bind us together. They are full of creatures, of fish - they are constant motion, the endless flow. Since ancient times, they have given life, sustained it, and taken it away with wide, sweeping arms - destroying and restoring in equal measure. They submit to our dams, and yet remain untamed.

And they are a minority among us. Scientists say there are nearly 3 million segments of rivers flowing across the land, and all of them together hold just 0.006% of the Earth’s fresh water. That is 2,246,000,000 м³.¹ If each cubic meter of that water were a concrete block - a meter by a meter by a meter - what could be built? Roughly 1,870 airports the size of London Heathrow. Or two and a half Great Walls of China, 900 pyramids of Khufu, 1,500 Burj Khalifas. Or a 7-meter-long drawing, lying across the floor of a quiet studio.

In the collaborative drawing The way the river flows the idea of a river was present from the very beginning-flowing quietly in the back of our minds. We worked physically and intuitively, with our hands and the paper, and quickly found ourselves in a state of flow. Organic shapes dissolve into one another, forming new transitions and hybrid forms. Our individual styles, too, merge and become one.

Like the water in a river, everything becomes connected, blended, and interrelated. The viewer's gaze is invited to drift along the drawing, just as one would follow the course of a river. Themes of connectedness-to the natural world and to our social environment-are woven throughout. Through collaboration, these themes could be explored, expanded, and exchanged from multiple perspectives.

¹Collins, E.L., David, C.H., Riggs, R. et al. Global patterns in river water storage dependent on residence time. Nat. Geosci. 17, 433–439 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01421-5