December 21, 2004
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu
Multi-talented artist Laurie Anderson performs her new show The End of the Moon at UCSB Campbell Hall
Summary Facts:
- Laurie Anderson
- The End of the Moon
- The master storyteller’s new highly acclaimed spoken-word piece
- Monday & Tuesday, January 24 & 25 / 8 pm
- UCSB Campbell Hall
- General public: $35 / UCSB students: $18
- Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535
Laurie Anderson, one of the world’s most accomplished performance artists, will present her new, highly-acclaimed spoken-word piece The End of the Moon on Monday & Tuesday, January 24 & 25 at 8 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. The End of the Moon is the second in a trilogy of new solo performance works that combine stories, songs, and music in an intimate and low-tech setting. Anderson’s new show includes music for violin and electronics creating a “duet” between the spoken word and her signature musical sound. The San Francisco Chronicle calls the show “wry, witty, provocative, slyly inventive and hypnotic. Anderson, once again, at the top of her captivating form.”
The End of the Moon follows the first piece in this series Happiness, which was co-commissioned by UCSB Arts & Lectures and presented to two sold-out audiences in Campbell Hall in January 2002. In Happiness Anderson told stories about her time spent working at a McDonald’s in New York City and living on an Amish farm. Her new work draws upon Anderson’s recent experiences and research serving as NASA’s first artist-in-residence. Part travelogue, part personal theories, history and dreams, The End of the Moon looks at the relationships between war, esthetics, spirituality and consumerism. Collectively, Anderson envisions this solo trilogy as an “epic poem” that aims to paint a large picture of contemporary American culture.
For her new work, Anderson began considering the question, “Who taught you what beauty is?” Unable to provide an answer, Anderson set off in search of one. She delved into what people think of as “beauty” and embarked on a range of physical and philosophical explorations of the natural world. In addition to her travels as NASA’s artist-in-residence, Anderson set off on a series of multi-day walks in various locations including Greece, France, England and Sri Lanka.
In addition to this new work, Anderson has been commissioned to create a film as well as an audio-visual walk for 2005 World Expo in Aiichi Japan. She also recently worked on the team that created the opening ceremony for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Anderson grew up in Glen Ellyn, a suburb of Chicago, moving to her adopted home of New York City when she was twenty. She first gained performance art acclaim for a piece that had roots in her experience playing violin with the Chicago Youth Symphony: standing in ice skates frozen in blocks of ice, she fiddled till she melted free. Her recording career took off when “O Superman” was an unlikely chart hit in England in 1981. Since then she has recorded eight albums, most recently Live in New York, released on Nonesuch Records in the spring of 2002. She has collaborated with a wide array of pop and avant luminaries, including Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Bill Laswell, Nile Rogers, Adrian Belew, Phoebe Snow and Lou Reed, who is also her long-time significant other.
Anderson has toured the world with her shows, which range from simple spoken word solo evenings to full band multi-media events. Major works have included her incisive and epic look at America United States Live I-V and the recent Songs and Stories for Moby Dick, based on and responding to Herman Melville’s classic. A DVD of that show, directed by Academy Award winner Mike Figgis, was released in 2002, joining her other concert film Home of the Brave.
Beyond her recording and touring, Anderson is a Renaissance woman of the arts. She has published six books, including Extreme Exposure, which features text from her solo appearances. Her visual work has appeared in museums and galleries throughout the world. Her compositions have appeared in films by Wim Wenders and Jonathan Demme and accompanied dance pieces by Bill T. Jones and Trisha Brown. It’s little surprise that The New York Times wrote, “Ms. Anderson has by now entered the pantheon of late-20th-century American artists, joining such figures as Japser Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. Her work captures an essential ‘Americanness’ of American art.”
Laurie Anderson is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Upham Hotel. Tickets are $35 for the general public and $18 for UCSB students who must show valid ID at ticket purchase and the evening of the show.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.