NIGHT LIFE [Hardcover]

Laurie Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 24, 2009

Night Life is Laurie Anderson's diary of a year of dreams. Its pages recreate each night's mental show as a work of art, employing Anderson's skill in theater, lyrics and narrative to investigate the workings of her mind in the languages of dreams, drawings and text. She describes the book thus: For the last year I've been on the road with a solo performance. Every night another theater, another hotel room. Gradually my dreams became wild, vivid, more and more relentless. Headless singing squirrels, vast empty spaces, bizarre clatterings and invasions. My own dark and private theater was slowly taking over. I began to draw these dreams literally out of self-defense. I kept the computer drawing tablet next to the bed and tried to capture them in their most raw state. After many months of drawing my dreams I was drawn into the odd language and logic of the images. Often I drew my own head in the foreground. What did that mean? Who's watching who? Often the dreams were alternate versions of the day's events. Sometimes they were heavily charged atmospheres, sensations, emotions. Depictions of bewilderment, ecstasy, weightlessness, abandonment, freedom.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Steidl (June 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3865213391
• ISBN-13: 978-3865213396
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,046,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pieces and Parts, September 3, 2007

By 

kronin "Firefly Fan" (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: NIGHT LIFE (Hardcover)

If you buy this book it is because you enjoy Laurie Anderson's work. Don't buy it to interprete her dreams, buy it because you like her art and her work, and feel like maybe she has something to say. In this case her message might be more vague in in her other works but they're dreams, the playthings of the mind while it is sleeping. She writes that these drawing, this book was written out of "self-defense." It's just a piece of her. It's just art.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting drawings, fascinating dreams, March 25, 2007

By 

NYCguy (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NIGHT LIFE (Hardcover)

Expectations -- any Laurie Anderson fan knows that it's best to leave them behind. She will constantly surprise, amuse and intrigue. These images were first shown at the Sean Kelley Gallery in New York as part of an installation called "The Waters Reglitterized," a "kind of diary of dreams and their literal recreation as works of art."

As with all of Laurie's work, these drawings raise more questions than they do provide answers. They are a look directly into her subconscious and the process of how her dreams manifest as art. She has said that she began to draw these dreams out of self-defense, so wild and relentless the dreams had become.

It's fascinating to watch her chronicle her dreams during the course of a year on the road. The drawings are entertaining, haunting and beautiful -- headless singing squirrels, a visit to her childhood home, a mid-air collision and PR people. In her own words: "'Not every show needs a plot!' I keep shouting."

19 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Over Priced Curiousity, March 17, 2007

By 

bunnyrabbit4 (New Orleans, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: NIGHT LIFE (Hardcover)

Most people who buy this book will buy it for the same reason: To get inside the quirky mind of artist and musician Laurie Anderson. What better way to gain an intimate understanding of her then to explore her dream life? I'm pretty good with dreams. For years I ran a dream interpretation website. However, when I read her mostly one line descriptions I didn't get the feeling that the universe was talking either to her or through her. If these were real dreams then she has left out all of the content you were hoping to read.

While Salvador Dali could go on endlessly about the dreamlike meanings of his paintings, Laurie Anderson gives most of her small scratchboard etchings little more than a title and never more than a bland description. "I stand on a balcony while Paris is Burning," is a good example, along with, "Everything I look at is dazzling." Even though I am a fan of her work, I only flipped through the volume once before shelving it. This roughly 7 by 9 inch book is only a little over a half inch thick making it a poor choice for your coffee table and given the price, your pocketbook as well.