Laurie Anderson is one of today’s premier multimedia artists, known for her achievements as a visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, vocalist and instrumentalist, and her innate ability to meld her dynamic practices into new and vibrant forms. ​

Her seemingly boundless oeuvre includes the creation of books, albums, and performances that incorporate film, slides, recorded audio, live music, and spoken word. Anderson has long been recognized as a groundbreaking leader in the use of technology in the arts and has developed new musical instruments, including the tape bow violin, in which the bow has been replaced with magnetic audiotape and the bridge with a reader.

The Chalkroom by Laurie Anderson and Hsin-Chien Huang at MASS MoCA was an immersive, interactive virtual reality (VR) installation which was on view through 2024. It now continues to surround the visitor in a flood of text – white on black like a chalkboard and lit with black light. And Anderson incorporates two additional works – Citizens, a video work from 2021, animates the space with projected images of 19 people (including a number of Anderson’s friends and the artist herself). Each is sharpening a knife, and an unsettling chorus of metal on metal fills the room. The second work is Ocean / Canoe (2026), a large gold canoe, broken and clumsily repaired, perhaps suggests the difficulties of the journey — or an escape of some kind.

Also new to Anderson’s rotating series of exhibitions is a selection of five monumental paintings. Debuted in her 2021 Hirshhorn exhibition The Weather, the works are also featured on the cover and interiors of Anderson’s most recent compilation album with Nonesuch Records titled Let X=X and recorded live during a tour with jazz band Sexmob. 

Related Books and Editions Available in MASS MoCA’s Stores:
View all Laurie Anderson books and editions

Download a PDF of the exhibition guide here.

Principal exhibition support is provided by the Sakana Foundation. Major support for the virtual reality installation with Hsin-Chien Huang is provided by the Rainbow Initiative – Funds for Collaborative Cultural Projects by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan, and National Chengchi University, Taiwan. Additional support is provided by Bowers & Wilkins.

Laurie Anderson, To Carry Heart’s Tide (The Canoe), 2020. Photo: Ron Blunt. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Courtesy of the artist.