ART-PRESENTATION: Laurie Anderson-Chalkroom
Laurie Anderson is an Avant-Garde artist, composer, musician and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting, Anderson pursued a variety of performance art projects in New York during the 1970s, making particular use of language, technology, visual imagery and electronic music. All of these elements are still a vital part of her artistic output.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Sesc SP Archive
Laurie Anderson is first and foremost a renowned storyteller. In every medium from painting to monologue, the artist is able to construct evocative narratives that transport viewers to a visual realm. In an event held within the 42nd Mostra Internacional de Cinema in São Paulo, CineSesc is inaugurating its newest annex with the installation” Chalkroom”, created by Laurie in collaboration with Hsin-Chien Huang. Perhaps best known for her performance art in which Laurie Anderson uses films and projections in her stage shows, which display her immense talent of combining the spoken word, visuals, music and sounds to create an energy infused experience. She has done everything from short Public Service Announcements on issues that she deems important or comical to her most recent directorial work in “Heart of A Dog” (2015). In 2011, the death of Laurie Anderson’s dog, Lolabelle, triggered a series of works, including “Lolabelle in the Bardo”. A practicing Buddhist, Anderson imagined her dog in the Bardo, a place in which, according to The Tibetan Book of the Dead, all living things must spend 49 days in preparation for reincarnation. Anderson’s use of virtual reality takes her storytelling to the next level, creating a total aural and visual atmosphere that enables participants to have the sensation of flying, traveling through solid surfaces, or entering an imaginary space or scenario. This medium is new for the artist. Anderson has worked with Hsin-Chien Huang, her Virtual Reality collaborator. Huang is a new media creator who works in art, design, engineering and digital entertainment. His career explores the cutting edge technologies in art, literature, design, and stage performance. Together they are generating an innovative approach to public engagement with Anderson’s artistic vision transformed to this new media. “Chalkroom” a.k.a. “La Camera Insabbiata” is an interdisciplinary work in virtual reality, in which it is possible to wander through enormous structures made of words, drawings, stories, dust and shadows, in a gallery consisting of various corridors, ramps and dark constructions whose black walls are covered by inscriptions in white chalk. Once immersed, the spectator is free to stroll through the environments. The words wander through the spaces, arise and break apart in the air; they are reconstructed and re-signified through the interaction of the visiting public. The universe created by Laurie Anderson and Hsin-Chien Huang is a library of stories. In the words of the artist: “No one will ever find them all. Never. They are hidden in very, very weird places.” In the work, the poetic construction of/ the artwork is part of various forms -of expression: from cinema to virtual reality, from poetry to experimental music. The spaces of the new annex of CineSesc were enveloped with the art of the installation, and one of the walls is transformed into a large blackboard for visitors to draw on, in the physical world, after experiencing the virtual work.
Info: CineSesc, Rua Augusta, 2075, Cerqueira César, São Paulo, Duration: 18/10-18/12/18, Days & Hours: Daily 14:30-21:30, www.sescsp.org.br
Laurie Anderson Interview: A Virtual Reality of Stories from Louisiana Channel on Vimeo.