Multimedia artist Laurie Anderson (Season 1) will be taking her new politico-musical on global tour starting March 26th with a kick-off at Carnegie Hall. As previously mentioned by Art21 guest blogger Seth Curcio, Homeland is composed of a series of narratives and songs that harvest everything from Greek drama to global warming, surveillance culture, the machinations of corporate America, Tuvan throat singing, technology, the Patriot Act, and even prostitution in Beverly Hills.
The full-length piece marks a return to subject matter than Anderson explored 25 years ago with United States: Parts I-IV, a work that established the artist as an innovator with a penchant for analyzing the collective psyche. Focused through the lens of technology, Anderson’s early vision of America intersected music, film, performance, electronics, and gesture-driven movement using images of telephone answering machines, televisions, and gadgetry that unmasked the human condition and ultimately heralded the age of the Internet.
Homeland ‚Äúcomes full circle with her perpetual analysis of America’s rarely talked-about inner psyche‚ĶTo watch Anderson perform is to revel in her honesty. She imparts natural truths encoded in our DNA, whether soliloquizing a narrative based on folklore or reminiscing about a trip to the laundromat in a dream. Anderson’s music and monologues are rapturous temples dedicated to our everyday existence, revealing our own insecurities‚Äù (Randy Nordschow, Playbill Arts).
An accompanying album to Homeland will be released in early 2009 on Nonesuch. For a complete listing of cities and dates for Homeland, please visit Pitchfork Media’s website.
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