Laurie Anderson: Four Talks Installation view from Laurie Anderson: The Weather at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 2021. Courtesy of the artist Photo by Ron Blunt.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Independence Ave. at 7th St., SW
Washington, DC
Laurie Anderson is one of the leading multimedia artists of our time, and her innovative work in performance, music, technology, and visual art has profoundly influenced popular culture for more than forty years. In 2021, as part of The Weather—her largest US exhibition to date– the Hirshhorn invited Anderson to create a new work on site. Anderson worked ten-hour days at the Museum for more than two weeks to paint directly on the walls and floors of this large gallery, covering nearly every inch with stories, song lyrics, jokes and commentary on current event. Painting in a stream-of-consciousness manner without preparatory sketches, she created an enveloping and intensely personal installation that takes visitors on a journey through her mind. The installation’s title, Four Talks (2021), refers to the four sculptures—a raven, a parrot, a canoe, and a shelf—at its center, each accompanyied by a pithy story or text passage. Monumentally scaled, conceptually rich and visually captivating, Four Talks, currently on long-term view on the second floor outer represents a key achievement in Anderson’s career.
Anderson’s artwork is the subject of a Hirshhorn Eye video embedded in the museum’s award-winning self-guiding smartphone platform, designed to enrich Four Talks by inviting visitors to linger and hear from the artist herself. Everyone is invited to share their reflections with @Hirshhorn by tagging #Hirshhorn and @laurieandersonofficial.
