About

Duncan Richards (she/they) is her father’s son and her mother’s daughter. A New York-based interdisciplinary artist and spiritsmith, whose creative work intertwines contemporary art with traditional folk magic. Through her moniker, WhereTheWaterFlows, she creates utilizing multi-media, sculptural, and mediumistic techniques. Duncan's work has been featured in collaborations with the Kolaj Institute of New Orleans and the National Folklore Collection at the University of Dublin, and has appeared at Red Dot Miami as part of Art Basel week. In addition to her artistic pursuits, she holds a master’s degree from NYU’s Silver School of Social Work, with a focus on Trans/Queer populations, and post-graduate certifications in Trauma specialization from the International Trauma Training Institute (ITTI).

Artist’s Statement 

My work is as varied as I am.

It emerges from an embracing of an inspirited world—for what are we if not spirits within a body? To create within such a world is to reject the colonial fantasy of the isolated artist and instead situate artmaking within a field of plurality. As a Trans artist, this orientation toward plurality is inseparable from my relationship to transformation. Transition has taught me that the body is never fixed, but continually shifting, opening, shedding, and becoming.

Change itself is not an issue to be resolved, but a generative condition through which the body expresses its own divine creation. This knowledge informs my practice and situates my work within broader Trans and Queer lineages of metamorphosis, resistance, and survival.

This relational way of being places me within a creative ecosystem that prioritizes exchange and resourcefulness, giving color to this little life we all share. Through ritual and technology, body and image, my work draws on folk magic, esoteric traditions, and Trans/Queer world-making to explore the subtle dialogue between spirits and bodies. I’m most interested in art as a co-creative act, a place where the subtle daimons that live around my heart can take shape in visual and written forms. For me, nothing is made alone. Because what would be the fun in that!