BOLDTYPE ISSUE #51: Artwork By
Laurie Anderson
This issue's cover features art from Night Life by Laurie Anderson. Published by Steidl and Edition 7L in 2006, the book documents a series of vivid dreams Anderson experienced while on tour in 2005. As the artist traveled from city to city, she recorded her increasingly bizarre dreams in lively illustrations and quirky texts.
The image above is from a March 1, 2005 dream and captures the cacophony of an orchestra rehearsing. Musicians are unable to stay in tune, and red curtains are placed throughout the stage to muffle the awful noise and wavering notes, while scratches in black and yellow litter the illustration. A lone figure — perhaps Anderson herself — looms in the foreground covering her ears, trying desperately to block out the din. Red saturates both the image and the facing page, lending further anxiety to the chaotic scene. Like many of the dreams documented in Night Life, the vision is restless and fraught with tension.
Anderson creates a compelling and unusual diary with her gift for storytelling and theatrics. Best-known for her dynamic and experimental performances, her investigations and interpretations of the language of dreams continue to push boundaries.
- Lisa Varghese
