Laurie Anderson: The State of Love

Laurie Anderson is one of the most multi-faceted and continually curious artists of the last half-century in any field. Though Anderson originally studied two of the most tactile forms of art-making in existence, playing the classical violin and sculpting, her work graduated to more grandiose conceits following a move into the downtown New York scene of the mid-‘70s. Whether playing until the ice that held her ice skates melted, using virtual reality to create inner sanctums of individual wonder, designing CD-ROMS, or inventing instruments that made processes like granular synthesis seem physical, Anderson’s work has pursued frontiers of possibility. Just as she helped codify the idea of vocal processing in pop music long ago, her audacious 2024 album, Amelia, saw the pilot Amelia Earhart as a fearless feminist and a boldly public figure. They are kindred spirits.

Anderson follows that thread of possibility ahead with State of Love, a new multimedia program that centers around a speech about the transformative power of love in an age of ascendant strongmen and oppression. Anderson incorporates bits of song, violin, and electronic abstraction as she moves between anecdotes about her life, the lessons of philosophers and poets, reflections on contemporary culture and politics, and even a conversation with an AI-made Sigmund Freud. During an early performance of State of Love in Vienna, Anderson even became a de facto martial arts instructor, teaching the audience tai chi she learned from late husband Lou Reed in an act of solidarity. “Love cannot give you an idea of music,” she said in what could be a Big Ears credo, “but music can give you an idea of love.”