Performance artist Laurie Anderson pulled together a number of visual and musical elements in staging her latest work, “Delusion,” on Tuesday, Oct. 19 at UC Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
“Delusion” is an intensely personal work for Laurie Anderson. The delusions are the ones about dying, and she poses questions: How are we to face up to the fact that we all fight a losing battle? Or, as Anderson asks about last words: “What are the things you say before you turn into dirt?” (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Anderson takes on issues big and small at her stage shows. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Anderson played an electric violin as well as a synthesizer at the UCSB show. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
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Any surface can become a video screen at a Laurie Anderson performance. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Over the years, Anderson has looked in corners, under the sofa so to speak, and at the broad countryside to reveal how we often fool ourselves. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Besides creating a cushion for narration, Anderson’s music just as often takes over from talk. There are moments when she hardly seems able to continue speaking and only the violin can continue the thread. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
