MASS MoCa
Laurie Anderson – Lollabelle in the Bardo
In
2011, the death of Laurie Anderson's
dog, Lolabelle, triggered a series
of works, including these works, Lolabelle in the
Bardo. A practicing Buddhist,
Anderson imagined her dog in the Bardo
— a place in which, according to The
Tibetan Book of the Dead, all living things must spend 49 days in
preparation for reincarnation. Anderon's large-scale (10 x 14 feet) charcoal
drawings of Lolabelle's journey are vast and gestural, open in a way that makes
you feel like you can leap inside them.
Laurie Anderson – Lolabelle in the Bardo
Laurie Anderson is a multimedia
artist, 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. She is
one of MASS MoCA’s first artists-in-residence. At the museum viewers can
explore (through 2018), as well as, these gigantic charcoal drawings, a multi-functional
constellation of galleries and installations including a working studio,
audio archive, exhibition venue, and a virtual reality environment
for experiences she co-created with Hsin-Chien Huang.
Laurie Anderson – Lolabelle in the Bardo
Lolabelle in the Bardo,
functions like a stock of memories depicting multiple versions of the dog
including one of Lolabelle playing
the keyboard – a task Anderson
taught Lolabelle late in her life to combat boredom as her eyesight failed. In
each drawing Anderson includes a Tibetan
prayer wheel, always spinning like a dervish, symbolizing the cyclical nature
of life and the stories we tell each other.
Related
Contessanally blog post
Laurie Anderson’s movie review - Heart of a Dog