The End of the Moon

The End of the Moon is the second in a series of Laurie Anderson’s signature solo work combining stories and music in a low-tech setting to create an ambitiously large picture of contemporary American culture.  Anecdotal, wide ranging and epic, The End of the Moon also features her new music for violin and electronics.  Since her pioneering multimedia work United States 1-4 Anderson’s recurrent subject has been the relationship between technology and culture. Of The End of the Moon she writes, “I find that the best way to look at our culture these days is not through a multimedia show, but more directly- with the simpler and sharper tools of words.”

As NASA’s first and last artist-in-residence Anderson draws on her recent research and travels. Part travelogue, part personal theories, history and dreams, The End of the Moon looks at the relationships between war, esthetics, the space race, spirituality, and consumerism.  Following the great critical and popular success of Happiness, The End of the Moon explores the contemporary meanings of freedom and time as well as the tangled ways in which we decide what is beautiful now.