"the process of working is the process of unveiling something that is already there” Pavol Liska

Nature Theater of Oklahoma directors Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska talk to artists, curators and people around the world as well as making work, being revolutionary and following their desires to ride loud motorbikes through the streets of New York! Their podcast OK Radio (iTunes link) was part of the inspiration to begin Wombat Radio.

"all i know is what art had done to me” Pavol Liska

“you have to start with faith” - Pavol Liska

“it’s still a way to feel connected to people” Kelly Copper

we talk about:

* what is what i’m doing, doing to me and to the world

* self medication

* success and struggle

* finding joy vs enjoying the pain

* community

* not following in your own crisis

* only worrying about doing the work well

* the point of diminishing returns

“what does religion do? nothing!” like art - Pavol Liska

* the power of exposure

“I grew up in communism and believed in one thing whole heartedly and then the revolution came and the next day i believed something else just as wholeheartedly” Pavol Liska

* living in a relative state of mind

* philosophy being in vogue

* everyone having questions

* living with absolute statements vs relative truths

“It’s hard to (use art to) provoke when they must put a warning outside the theatre about anything that might provoke you” - Kelly Copper

* the artist feeling that they need to reassure the audience that they are on the side of the angels

* artistic pornography

“trick the audience into coming there and then staying there” - Pavol Liska

* pandering vs elitism

* flirting with trouble

* conduct

“I have got in trouble for things, that I did not believe was wrong” - Pavol Liska

* invitation, provocation, and boundaries

* having access to embody anyone, hitler or jesus. molesters or angels

* giving up on absolutes

"I couldn’t call myself a good guy, I know myself too well” - Pavol Liska

* never intending harm

“I hate that there are things (politically that) we can’t touch” - Kelly Copper

“I don’t know any other way to fix it than to keep making work” - Pavol Liska

* Solastalgia

"my role models, all got in trouble” - Pavol Liska

* the world of performance

* what makes up your language and vocabulary

* legacy

“the art sometimes has to behave badly” - Kelly Copper

[theatre] “It’s a place for intuition and dreaming and a space for nightmares” -  Pavol Liska

* expanding rules

* in art you have to push yourself past discomfort around your ideas and rules

* sushi vs schnitzel

“as soon as you push back against the radicals, you become the conservative?” Matt Cornell

* moving to America after your formative years

“you don’t know and you can’t know and at some point you just have to take a risk… And work on that” - Pavol Liska