On this month's show the first guests are Artist/Curator David Borawski and Artist Liz Sweibel to talk about their exhibit Abductions and Reconstructions up now at Real Art Ways in Hartford. Featuring the artists Meg Hitchcock, Ryan Sarah Murphy, Liz Sweibel, Abductions and Reconstructions offers fresh takes on abstraction, collage, and sculpture with works that are at once intricate and tough. The three artists present a diverse range of aesthetic considerations: Meg Hitchcock often uses letters from one text, such as the Bible, to craft passages in another text, like the Quran. Regarding this process, Hitchcock says:

“…by deconstructing and recombining the holy books of diverse religions, I undermine their authority and animate the common thread that weaves through all scripture.”

Ryan Sarah Murphy’s cardboard reliefs could be aerial views of farmland, architecture plans, or political maps of imaginary nations. She crafts these objects with a sense of seriousness and play befitting the found, casual nature of her materials. Liz Sweibel uses both found and acquired materials in her precarious sculptures and assemblages. Sweibel says

“The process is low-tech, immediate, and improvisational, and primarily takes form as spare, abstract sculpture, installation, and drawing.”

Abductions and Reconstructions is at RealArtWays, 56 Arbor St, Hartford and runs from Feb 15- April 8.

More about Real Art Ways here

During the second half we talk on the phone with artist Aliza Shvarts whose forthcoming exhibit at Artspace New Haven, Aliza Shvarts: Off Scene runs from May 11 - Jun 30. . Aliza recently ran a workshop based on her Banners Project as a part of the current Code Breakers Exhibit at The Ely Center for Contemporary Art, which invited women and gender variant people to exchange of stories in which the internet left them vulnerable to public shaming, and how these individual experiences of shame can be transformed to galvanize a collective demand. The title Aliza Shvarts: Off Scene, references the artists’ investment in performance, one that shifts our attention from the center to the social, historical, and material surround. At once linguistic and bodily, “off scene” refers to the circulation of gossip, rumor, viral text, and other forms of knowing. Using text, video,and audio she explores issues of how the body means and matters, how the subject consents and dissents.

The opening reception is Friday, May 18, 5-8pm. On Friday, May 18 from 6-8pm, Shvarts will host a roundtable discussion with Robert Post (Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School), Reva Siegel (Nicholas de B. Katzenbach Professor of Law, Yale Law School), which will consider the aesthetic, legal, and ideological frameworks that choreograph the body’s capacity to produce meaning within the fictive or the real. This event is free and open to the public. Artspace is located at 50 Orange Street in New Haven, CT.

more about Artspace here

This episode of Live Culture also features a new song performed by Jody Stecher in protest of the gun violence t in this Country. Cousins Jay Feldman and Jody Stecher found they each were hit hard by the Florida school shootings. Jay began writing a song expressing his feelings about it. Jody helped him finish the song. Also on the show will be an excerpt of music from the soundtrack to the film Ladybird  by Jon Brion, and a song from The Mammals.