“How does one create an ecological artwork that doesn’t make more waste in the world?” asked composer and interdisciplinary artist Meredith Monk in conjunction with her 2013 music-theater piece, On Behalf of Nature. What is the artist’s role if not, in the words of poet Gary Snyder, to be “a spokesperson for non-human entities communicating to the human realm through dance or song?” Monk meets Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman to converse publicly for the first time about ephemerality, karma, and the place where Buddhism, artistic expression, and environmental concerns intersect.
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