Laurie Anderson strolled onstage in a flowing orange cloak over black jacket and skinny pants—perhaps a character out of Harry Potter?  “I’m sorry I’m wearing my bathrobe,” the multi-media artist quickly apologized as she sat down.  “I caught the flu, and I’m still not over it.”  On April 21 Anderson spoke of her recent work and ruminations in a discussion with writer Maggie Nelson at the central branch of the LA Public Library, as part of their ALOUD series.  In a wide-ranging conversation which flipped from topic to topic, Anderson proved herself a remarkable storyteller, whereas Nelson just seemed very scattered. 

Anderson and Maggie Nelson Photo Gary Leonard

Having loved Heart of a Dog (2015), her art-film homage to her dearly departed dog Lolabelle, I can’t get enough of Lolabelle stories. When Lolabelle went blind, she became despondent—then a friend of Anderson’s suggested that she learn to “play” the piano.  “She would play the piano for about an hour every day,” Anderson said in her dry, whimsical drone, “for anyone who would come by and listen.”  And then her dog died, which led her to wondering where Lolabelle went. In some sects of Buddhism, souls go to the bardo, where they linger before they are reborn, and Anderson imagined Lolabelle’s wild and wonderful passage in drawings and paintings (some of which appear in the film), and a Day-Glo room installation (at MASS MoCA in Western Massachusetts).

Anderson’s new book All The Things I Lost in the Flood traces 40 years of her career in words and pictures—reading it is reading about her failures, she said, beaming from ear to ear.  “Materials teach us things, they are resistant to Big Ideas,” she continued.  “Plan Bs—and Ds and Es—are throughout the book.”

Audience, photo by Gary Leonard

At the end of the evening, someone asked the question she had asked John Cage long ago, were human beings getting better?  (The implication is that they may be getting worse.)  Anderson answered reluctantly, in her elliptical way, saying that given what we’ve seen of climate change and that the damage we’ve done to the earth—well, it turns out she’s a bit of a pessimist. Then, as if shocked by her own words, she scrambled to say something to end the evening on a happier note. She said that a Buddhist elder had reminded her of other worlds of rebirth—“so Buddha even thought that through.”