Happiness
Anderson's first work of her solo trilogy, Happiness features stories and simple instruments. Like much of her work, this one looks at contemporary culture, through various filters: synthetic language, love songs, animal communication and techno burn out.
The End of the Moon
The End of the Moon is the second in a series of Laurie Anderson’s signature solo work combining stories and music in a low-tech setting to create an ambitiously large picture of contemporary American culture. Anecdotal, wide ranging and epic, The End of the Moon also features her new music for violin and electronics. Since her pioneering multimedia work United States 1-4 Anderson’s recurrent subject has been the relationship between technology and culture. Of The End of the Moon she writes, “I find that the best way to look at our culture these days is not through a multi media show, but more directly- with the simpler and sharper tools of words.”
As NASA’s first and last artist-in-residence Anderson draws on her recent research and travels. Part travelogue, part personal theories, history and dreams, The End of the Moon looks at the relationships between war, esthetics, the space race, spirituality and consumerism. Following the great critical and popular success of Happiness, The End of the Moon explores the contemporary meanings of freedom and time as well as the tangled ways in which we decide what is beautiful now.
DIRTDAY!
Laurie Anderson looks at politics, theories of evolution, families, history, and animals in this riotous and soulful collection of songs and stories. Set against a detailed and lush sonic landscape, the stories and music create a unique picture of a hallucinatory world made of dreams and reality. The third and last in her series of solo story works, “Dirtday!” is the culmination of Anderson’s ground breaking work in this genre.
