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Surreal Masks, An Irreverent Half-Time Dance Squad, and Infinity Burial Suits | Culture Beat Episode 5

In the fifth episode of Culture Beat, we visit artist and mask-maker David Henry Nobody Jr., meet the women of the LA City Municipal Dance Squad, and celebrate life with Jae Rhim Lee's infinity burial suits.

In Brooklyn, we visit performance artist David Henry Nobody Jr.'s studio to see his provocative and transformative self-portrait masks. Though they look digitally created, we'll see how his "resemblage" technique is entirely rooted in the physical world. Across the country to LA, we meet the LA City Municipal Dance Squad, whose inspired and irreverent half-time performances explore women's physicality, self-expression, and push the envelope of what it means to be a dancer. Lastly, we face mortality with Jae Rhim Lee's infinity burial suits which use mushrooms to speed up the decomposition process. Although Lee confronts the concept of death head-on in this work, we discover how the suit is actually a statement about the a celebration of life.

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Infinity Suit Segment featuring performers/actors: Alexis Convento, Mariah Martens, and Suzie Rzecznik.

SORA Quartet musicians: Allison Dubinski (violin), Gabryel Smith (violin), Emily Bookwalter (viola), and Ken Hashimoto (cello). SORA Quartet performed excerpts from John Cage's String Quartet in 4 parts, with permission from the John Cage Trust.

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