Legendary artist Laurie Anderson brings her most ambitious work to date to Aviva Studios

Aviva Studios, the home of Factory International is set to host the world premiere of a major new live show commissioned by Factory International and Rising: Melbourne from legendary artist Laurie Anderson.

Running at Aviva Studios from Tue 12 Nov – Sun 24 Nov, ARK: United Starts Part V brings together new music, cinematic imagery, stories and songs at a scale larger than ever for Anderson.

Weaving together multiple threads from her illustrious, five-decade-long career, ARK is described as an imaginative and personal interrogation of where we are now, asking: what has brought us here and how much time do we have left?

Anderson was born in Chicago in June 1947, coinciding with the time and location that atomic scientists began the Doomsday clock’s countdown to the midnight of nuclear destruction.

Fast forward to the present day and Anderson looks at the various countdowns that now engulf civilisation — climate collapse, environmental disaster and the proliferation of artificial intelligence — and how they have all contributed to a sense of isolation and powerlessness, causing us to retreat further online.

The ambitious new stage show explores themes of fear, disaster, preservation, invention, love and escape.  Set in a dream-like moment where the data cloud breaks, ARK offers a pause where digital representation and reality are separated. Within this brief window, Anderson asks whether we running out of time? Or is it already too late?

ARK features new music, some of which has been created with the band Sexmob, familiar songs from throughout the artist’s career, a collaboration with Sacred Harp singers from across the country and contributions from her collaborator and fellow artist Ai Weiwei.

Laurie Anderson says: “For a long time I’ve wanted to make a new large-scalework about the United States – a collection of songs and stories about what has shaped this country in the 21st century. I plan to tell these stories moving through myth, journalism, fable, and Tik Tok, conjuring alternate realities and stories from my own life. Part ruminations, part long-form poems, ARK will also be a kind of 3D movie.”

Tickets to ARK: United Starts Part V are on sale now. Grab yours using the button below.