The Sunday Read: ‘Laurie Anderson Has a Message for Us Humans’

<p>When the Hirshhorn<strong> </strong>Museum told Laurie Anderson that it wanted to put on a big, lavish retrospective of her work, she said no.</p><p>For one thing, she was busy and has been for roughly 50 years. Over the course of her incessant career, Ms. Anderson has done just about everything a creative person can do. She helped design an Olympics opening ceremony, served as the official artist in residence for NASA, made an opera out of “Moby-Dick” and played a concert for dogs at the Sydney Opera House. And she is still going.</p><p>On top of all this, Ms. Anderson had philosophical qualms about a retrospective. She is 74, which seems like a very normal age to stop and look back, and yet she seems determined, at all times, to keep moving forward.</p><p><i><strong>This story</strong> <strong>was written by Sam Anderson and recorded by Audm</strong>. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, </i><a href="https://www.audm.com/?utm_source=nytmag&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=the_shapeshifter_anderson" target="_blank"><i>download Audm for iPhone or Android</i></a><i>.</i></p>