Esohro - Scars #3, 2023, Eto Otitigbe
Rivers Unsettled
Eto Otitigbe
Hi-ARTS is thrilled to partner with Eto Otitigbe on Rivers Unsettled. Gathering sculptural, mixed media, and installation-based works from field studies along the Harlem River, a site of contested histories, industrial scars, and ecological resilience, this exhibition engages the river, not as a passive subject but as a co-author, its rhythms and residues shaping material and meaning alike.
The river is never still. It meanders, carves, swells, and recedes–an unsettled body of perpetual negotiation. Drawing upon Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of Dialogical Art, Rivers Unsettled rejects singular narratives in favor of polyphonic voices–human, nonhuman, organic, and constructed—coexisting in tension and dialogue.
This exhibition and programming will culminate with the installation of Emanativ, a public sound sculpture powered by the changing water levels in the Harlem River, to be installed at the Manhattan Greenway Harlem River in 2026.
Rivers Unsettled
May 7-24, 2025
El Barrio’s Artspace PS109 Foyer Gallery
215 E 99th St. New York
Gallery Hours
Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm
Opening Reception
May 13, 2025, 7pm
Gallery Walkthrough with Eto Otitigbe
May 24, 2025, 3-5pm
Continue reading below to learn more about Eto Otitigbe and upcoming programming.
Upcomming Programming
Esohro-Scars #1-3, 2023, Eto Otitigbe
Rivers Unsettled
Eto Otitigbe
May 7-24, 2025
The river is never still. It meanders, carves, swells, and recedes—an unsettled body of perpetual negotiation. Rivers Unsettled gathers sculptural, mixed media, and installation-based works born from field studies along the Harlem River. This exhibition engages the river, not as a passive subject but as a co-author, rhythms and residues shaping material and meaning alike.
Drawing upon Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of Dialogical Art, Rivers Unsettled rejects singular narratives in favor of polyphonic voices—human, nonhuman, organic, and constructed—coexisting in tension and dialogue. These works do not merely represent the river; they converse with it, absorbing its sedimented past while speaking into its ever-unfolding present. In this case, Eto is a listener and maker, allowing the Harlem River’s textures and shifting borders to articulate their own agency.
Objects in this exhibition emerge to represent the riverbank’s strata; invoking thresholds between land and water, permanence and erosion, presence and disappearance. These works are unfixed, much like the river itself, constantly reshaped by forces both seen and unseen.
These works remind us that the river speaks—not in a singular voice but in a multitude of murmurs, currents, and disruptions—demanding that we listen in the face of ecological crisis and urban transformation.
May 7-24, 2025
On view at El Barrio’s Artspace PS109 Foyer Gallery
215 E 99th St., New York, NY
Gallery Hours
Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm
No registration required.
(1) Zane Rodulfo, (2) Eto Otitigbe, (3) Diana Ayala
Opening Reception
May 13, 2025, 7pm
Join us for the opening of Rivers Unsettled, an evening that bridges dialogue, sound, and creativity. The night begins with a conversation between NYC Deputy Speaker and District 8 Council Member Diana Ayala and artist Eto Otitigbe, centering climate action and urban resilience in East Harlem. In light of recent investments in local infrastructure, Ayala and Otitigbe will explore how residents, specifically the creative community, can prepare for an uncertain future.
The evening continues with a live performance by Abandoned Orchestra, featuring Eto Otitgbe and Hi-ARTS CRITICAL BREAKS Alum Zane Rodulfo. Subwaves, an electric soundscape that draws data from the Harlem River, transforming it into an improvised, immersive score through sound and sculpture.
Esohro - Scars #3, 2023, Eto Otitigbe
Gallery Walkthrough with Eto Otitigbe
May 24, 2025, 3-5pm
Step into Rivers Unsettled, with Eto Otitigbe as your guide. This intimate walkthrough invites audiences to experience the exhibition not just as viewers, but as active listeners to the river, the materials, and the layered stories this exhibition carries.
Led by Eto, listen to the process behind each piece. Learn about the ecological data, historical research, and sensory experiences that informed each work. Explore how the Harlem River’s own rhythm helped shape EO’s work.
May 24, 2025, 3-5pm
El Barrio’s Artspace PS 109 Foyer Gallery
215 E 99th St., New York, NY
No registration required.
Emanativ rendering: Michael DiCarlo.
Emanativ
2026—
Manhattan Greenway Harlem River
Emanativ is a sound sculpture powered by changing water levels in the Harlem River that employs interactive sculpture and biophilic design principles to offer a unique urban soundscape that transforms Manhattan Greenway Harlem River into a cultural destination. Responding directly to the residing and falling tides of the river, Emanativ will be tuned to a Dominant 7th Chord. Composed of 4 notes, this chord was born out of the harmonic vocabulary that Jazz musicians used to develop Bebop. Since then it has been used widely throughout Jazz music to give sound movement and tension. The Emanativ exploits these tonal qualities as a literal and poetic reflection of the location in which it is situated. Harlem has a rich history in Jazz, Latin Jazz, Funk, Gospel, Hip-Hop, and House Music; and the Harlem River — a turbulent estuary.
Eto Otitigbe
Eto Otitigbe is interested in recovering buried narratives and giving form to the unseen. He is a polymedia artist whose interdisciplinary practice includes sculpture, performance, installation, and public art. His public art intersects history, community, and biophilic design by using parametric modeling and generative design to transform historical and cultural references into biomorphic forms and patterns that reference nature. Otitigbe’s public works includes temporary installations in Socrates Sculpture Park (Queens, NY) and Randall’s Island Park (New York, NY). His current large-scale public commissions include: Peaceful Journey (Mt. Vernon, NY, 2022); Cascode (Philadelphia, PA, 2024); Emanativ (Harlem, NY, 2023); Passing Point (Alexandria, VA, 2023). He was a member of the Design Team for the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at UVA (Charlottesville, VA, 2019) where he contributed to the creative expression on the memorial's exterior surface.
Otitigbe's work has been in solo and group exhibitions that include 2013 Bronx Calling: The Second AIM Biennial, organized by the Bronx Museum and Wave Hill; Abandoned Orchestra, Sound Sculpture (2021) installation and performance with Zane Rodulfo, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; The Golden Hour, Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, GA, curated by Oshun D. Layne; and Bronx: Africa (2016), Longwood Gallery, Bronx, NY, curated by Atim Oton and Leronn P. Brooks.
Otitigbe’s fellowships and awards include the Creative Capital Award (2023), the CEC Artslink Project Award for travel and cultural projects in Egypt (2015), and the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship at the National Museum of African Art (2018) where he explored the intersection of Urhobo language and historical objects.
His curatorial projects include directing the es ORO Gallery in Jersey City, NJ (2007-09) and co-curating, alongside Amanda Kerdahi, the Topophilia Exhibition in Nees, Denmark (2017) as part of the ET4U Meetings Festival in Denmark.
He is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture in the Art Department at Brooklyn College. He received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, an MS in Product Design from Stanford University and an MFA in Creative Practice from the University of Plymouth.
Image courtesy of Eto Otitigbe