Laura Katz Rizzo

I have been building installations since 2017. Most are impermanent. Most recently I have been building modular portals. These portals are the manifestation of my creative process, and reflect my philosophy, research and aesthetic. These mobile kinetic modular art objects are made from fallen branches bound together with ropes. Their structure reflects both an abstract and literal consideration of non-Euclidian, organic development, growth, and balance. The portals are made using minimal tools, no electricity, and manifest creative architectural forms inspired by natural structures and processes like dendritic branching, neural networks, and mycelium. The portals are site responsive and meant to integrate with rather than dominate the landscape.

Cloudwalker Portal, PondSkimmer Portal: Refugia, Re-Charge Festival, Temple Ambler, Playa Del Fuego 2025 and pOrtalBurn, 2025

Refugia is an installation built from modular art objects created with fallen branches bound together with rope and yarn. The structure of the installation makes a welcoming and protective space people can enter and pass through, integrating more fully with their environment and themselves. An inquiry into dynamic balance and non-Euclidian building architecture, the installation process uses minimal tools, gravity and no electricity. Refugia is shelter intended to draw viewers into and around its interior and exterior spaces, creating possibilities for refuge and reorientation.

Malkuthian Activation Portals II, art grant recipient, Playa Del Fuego, Tamaqua PA, May 2022, art grant recipient, Cosmic Burn, Ithaca, NY, June 2022, art grant recipient, Portalburn, Almond, NY, July 2022
Malkuth is a Hebrew word that can be understood as “Kingdom,” and refers to the material world of the senses. The Malkuthian Activation Portals are made from bound sticks and ropes. Their design is drawn from each of the 5 universal elements of Air, Earth, Water, Fire and Ether, and they reflect and invoke these natural forces, both as art objects and/or focal points or meditation tools that focus energetic frequencies and activate different energy centers.

Shrine to Demeter’s Tears, art grant recipient, Portalburn, Almond, NY, August 2021
Demeter is the Greek goddess of agriculture, grain and bread. When Persephone, her daughter was abducted and raped by her uncle Hades, and brought into the underworld Demeter became so sad that everything on the earth stopped growing. This is an altar where you are invited to reflect upon loss, grief, and the cycle of the seasons. Arriving at the threshold of autumn, we reap the fruits of this year’s harvest, and clear away the chaff we don’t need to carry into the winter months. This shrine is a sacred space dedicated to letting go of outdated burdens and making space for new growth.

Malkuthian Activation Portals I, Red Hawk Farm, Ithaca, NY, July 2020
Malkuth is a Hebrew word that can be understood as “Kingdom,” and refers to the material world of the senses. The Malkuthian Activation Portals are made from bound sticks and ropes. Their design is drawn from each of the 5 universal elements of Air, Earth, Water, Fire and Ether, and they reflect and invoke these natural forces, both as art objects and/or focal points or meditation tools that focus energetic frequencies and activate different energy centers.

pool of the Dawn, art grant recipient, Playa del Fuego, Tamaqua, PA, May 2019
Spool of the Dawn is a kinetic altar to summer, a reference to the magical Beltane ritual of the Maypole dance, and a connector of worlds. The piece creates a portal through which burn participants can reawaken their bodies, minds and spirits to the vivid colors, vibrant scents, and tingling breezes of summer. Like the blossoming of the flowers in summer, our wishes and dreams grow and develop as they manifest in the world. Spool of the Dawn is a portal to help visualize your own perfect world. State your wish by writing it on a paper and clipping it to the ropes of the spool. When Spool of the Dawn burns, the energy from your wish will be set out into the universe, planting seeds from which your best life will unfurl.

Hekate’s Mercy, art grant recipient, Constellation Burn, West Virginia, October 2018The divine feminine is the embodiment of compassion. She has infinite mercy, and will hold for you what you are ready to give her. Brigid, Freya, Tara, Hera, Ix Chel, Isis, Persephone, Venus, Mary, Hecate- she wants to help you because of her limitless compassion and love. She is here to relieve your suffering by holding onto those things/parts of yourself/memories/burdens that you are ready to hand over to her. Write them on a piece of paper and place them in her satchel and they will burn along with her.

Voyage of the Maiden, art grant recipient, Playa Del Fuego, Odessa, DE, May 2018

o Voyage of the Maiden: Voyage of the Maiden is a 3 layered five sided structure which creates a sacred space of remembrance and honoring. It is a portal to a liminal space in which memories can be conjured, drawn forth and then released with love. The tripartite form of the piece reflects the maiden/mother/crone cycle of the witch/goddess. It reflects the journey of a mythical heroine as she crosses a threshold into the next phase of her story cycle. The 5 pointed stars within these 3 layers invoke the elements of the universe so that they can guide this voyage toward the true and alighted path.

Laura Katz Rizzo: Practicing Choreographies of Connection and Rituals of Somatic Knowing

Practicing Choreographies of Mending, Repair and Integration

Site Responsive Installation