Laurie Anderson ARK: United States V at Aviva Studios
Johnny James, Managing Editor
The data clouds break. Systems are failing. We are on our own. What now?
Marking the end of the world in a momentous mix of music, cinematic imagery, songs and stories, ARK is a new live stage work conceived by and featuring the legendary multi-media artist Laurie Anderson at Aviva Studios.
One of America’s most daring creative voices, Laurie Anderson was born in Chicago in June 1947, the same time and place that atomic scientists began the Doomsday clock’s countdown to the midnight of nuclear destruction. Moving to New York to attend Barnard College, Anderson soon began casting herself in roles as varied as visual artist, author, director, filmmaker, photographer, tech innovator, vocalist and instrumentalist, producing more creative output than most artists could aspire to over several lifetimes.
The extraterrestrial avant-pop song ‘O Superman’ launched Anderson’s recording career in 1981, rising to number two on the British pop charts and subsequently appearing on Big Science, the first of her seven albums on the Warner Brothers label. Looking back, it was a surprising sign from Warner; Anderson was an unlikely star, her ethereal take on avant pop hardly out for competition with Diana Ross. But then again the early ’80s were great years to be embracing new technologies. Anything was possible.
And that seems to be the mantra by which Anderson has navigated her career, whose landmarks range from winning a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys to being appointed the first artist-in-residence of NASA. These things don’t happen to normal people. They happen to people who push the limits of what is possible.
Nowhere is this more evident in Anderson’s work than in her forward-thinking multi-media events, which weave together various artforms into one holistic expression. A major work in her catalogue is 1983’s United States I-V, an eight-hour opus comprising sound sculpture and rock music, gender and social studies, philosophy and linguistics. Offering a piquant critique of Reagan-era America and its various neoroses, it proposed an alternative form of patriotism, one that centred disorientation and found authenticity in imagination.
Fast forward to our own time and America, as it prepares for a momentous election, is not without its own share of neuroses. And it’s this moment that Anderson has selected to complete the aforementioned work with ARK: United States V.
Fusing music, cinematic imagery, songs and stories into one immersive experience, ARK deploys imagination and humour in the face of the multiple calamities that now contribute to the doomsday clock that chimed at Anderson’s birth. Climate collapse, environmental disaster, and the proliferation of artificial intelligence have all added to a sense of isolation and powerlessness as we retreat further online. Where do we go from here? Is there a way out?
We’ve made the flood, but can we build an ark?
