Artist Aviva Rahmani speaks to Steve and Katie about her artistic practice investigating and using the law.  Her current work, Blued Trees Symphony, is a musical and visual art work installed along miles of proposed pipeline expansion on land subject to possible eminent domain.  Rahmani has copyrighted the work and plans to use the Visual Artist Rights Act to prevent the art’s destruction, thereby frustrating the building of pipeline. Resources: You can learn more about Aviva Rahmani and Blued Trees Symphony here: http://ghostnets.com/# http://ghostnets.com/projects/blued_trees_symphony/blued_trees_symphony.html http://www.abladeofgrass.org/fellows/aviva-rahmani/ http://www.abladeofgrass.org/events/mock-trial/ https://hyperallergic.com/439553/aviva-rahmani-cardozo-school-of-law-stop-a-pipeline/ Episode Transcription: Steve Schindler:  Hi, I’m Steve Schindler. Katie Wilson-Milne:  I’m Katie Wilson-Milne. Steve Schindler:  Welcome to the Art Law Podcast, a monthly podcast exploring the places where art intersects with and interferes with the law. Katie Wilson-Milne:  And vice versa.  The Art Law Podcast is sponsored by the law firm of Schindler Cohen & Hochman LLP, a premier litigation and art law boutique in New York City. Aviva Rahmani:  So if you look down on any of the measures it recapitulates a simple refrain (singing). Steve Schindler:  So, Katie, do you want to tell our listeners about the new idea that we have to have some shorter interviews with artists who engage with the legal world? Katie Wilson-Milne:  Yeah, so we are going to be releasing a series of podcasts intermittently in which we interview artists who tell us about how their work engages legal structures.  So, rather than Steve and I and a guest examining the art world through law and legal structures, we are going to flip it and ask artists to tell us about how their art is inspired by and reflects the law. Okay, we are here today with the artist Aviva Rahmani, who is going to share with us some information about her practice and her work using law as a medium and a tool in her work.  Aviva began her career as a performance artist founding and directing the American Ritual Theater, performing throughout California.  She graduated from the California Institute of the Arts and received a Ph.D. from Plymouth University in the United Kingdom.  She has presented workshops on her theatrical approach to environmental restoration and her transdisciplinary work has been exhibited internationally at many prestigious museums and exhibition spaces.  So, Aviva, thank you for being with us. Aviva Rahmani:  I am honored to be here with you.  Thank you for inviting me. Katie Wilson-Milne:  So just for our listeners who are not familiar with your work can you talk about your artistic practice and then also maybe when the legal system first entered your practice. Aviva Rahmani:  Well what’s interesting about law is that it’s a system to preserve civilization.  And I often think about the role of art in the anthropocene as the glue that may hold us together through this very perilous time.  So if you think about systems that way, it’s a hop, skip, and a jump between law and the judicial process and any other system that preserves culture.  My interest specifically in the kind of law I’m working with now developed in the late 70s when a lot of artists were using appropriation.  And what I noticed was that appropriation was very often an excuse to rip off other artists, other people in general, and very often women.  That really incensed me.  So I began to inform myself and follow some of the arguments.  So when I had this opportunity that came up that became the Blued Trees Symphony I jumped on it because I thought, “wow, that will be really, really interesting.”  Take the concept of copyright law and culture jam it so that it serves the society as the law for Eminent Domain, which is supposed to protect property, is supposed to protect land owners and actually serves corp