Laurie Anderson is up on the screens at London Piccadilly Circus, From 6th April until 30th April 2023, every evening at 20.23 until 20.26 – “CIRCA 20:23 presents a new series of 25 animated pages by multimedia artist, Laurie Anderson”.

“The Cultural Institute of Radical Contemporary Arts (CIRCA) presents Notebook – a new series of 25 animated pages by groundbreaking multimedia artist, performer, musician and writer, Laurie Anderson. Launching on the full moon (6 – 30 April), Notebook will debut a different video work every evening throughout April at 20:23 on London’s Piccadilly Lights and broadcast across a global network of digital screens in Berlin, Milan, Seoul and Tokyo.

CIRCA collaborated with Laurie Anderson to develop a limited-edition series of 25 silkscreen prints in support of the #CIRCAECONOMY – a circular model that funds the CIRCA free public art programme and creates life-changing opportunities for the wider creative community. Available here.

Highlighting her unique blend of the personal, the poetic and the political, Anderson created Notebook in response to the CIRCA 20:23 manifesto: ‘Hope: The Art of Reading What Is Not Yet Written’. Drawing on CIRCA’s distinctive monthly programme, the exhibition will unravel over 25 days as an ongoing narrative of words, drawings and stories. Featuring over 135 chalk-drawings from the artist’s personal notebook, each photographed and edited in stop-motion, Anderson will guide members of the public on an intimate and personal journey.

As part of the #CIRCAECONOMY commitment to invest in the future of art and culture, CIRCA invited curator and author, Vittoria de Franchis, to write this month’s CIRCA Essay in response to Notebook:

‘Laurie Anderson’s proposal for CIRCA 20:23, “Notebook”, consists of 25 animations composed of 135 drawings from her notebook. When I ask her what they are about, she answers: “I prefer not to turn them into language or explicate. The world is already overexplained. Think of them outside of context. Thought balloons. Appearing out of nowhere.” It is no coincidence that Anderson’s piece inaugurates on April’s full moon day. Raising our gaze to look at the sky has become an archaeological gesture, something we romantically associate with menhirs and ancient discoveries. Cities don’t have a sky; the lights are too bright, and pollution veils the firmament. We sometimes have the sensation that nothing is beyond skyscrapers, dangerously becoming condensed cores of our destinies.’”

Read the full CIRCA Essay here.

Find it at Piccadilly Circus, London, W1D 7ET. More from CIRCA