William S. Burroughs & Laurie Anderson: Language is a Virus

Fort Myers, FL – The Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida Southwestern State College (FSW) is delighted to announce “William S. BURROUGHS & Laurie ANDERSON: Language is a Virus”, opening to the public on August 26th, and running through December 7th, 2024. This groundbreaking exhibition explores the concept of language as a transformative force, a carrier of ideas, and a potential weapon, as envisioned by the late literary giant William S. Burroughs and the pioneering multimedia storyteller and artist Laurie Anderson. Featuring never-before-seen original “shotgun”- and “bowling-ball canon”-blasted paintings, works on paper, unique manuscripts/publications, personal artifacts (including WSB’s “painting glove” and custom firearm “silencer” tube) as well as handwritten lyrics (to Anderson’s “O Superman” and “It’s Not the Bullet”), this is the first exhibition to pair and present these hugely influential and iconoclastic artist-friends and collaborators.

“I have frequently spoken of word and image as viruses or as acting as viruses,” as William Burroughs wrote in 1971, “and this is not an allegorical comparison.” Language infects us; its power derives not from its straightforward ability to communicate or persuade but rather from this infectious nature – bits of language grafting themselves onto other bits of language, spreading and reproducing, using human beings as hosts. As Laurie Anderson notes, “In 1980, I wrote a song for William Burroughs called ‘Language is a Virus.’ This was a quote from one of Burroughs’ books. It’s a strange thing for a writer to say that language is a disease communicable by mouth. It’s also a very Buddhist thing to say. I mean, in Buddhist thought there’s the thing and there’s the name for the thing and that’s one thing too many. Because sometimes when you say a word, you think you actually understand it. In fact, all you’re doing is saying it, you don’t necessarily understand it all. So language, well, it’s a kind of trick.”

William S. BURROUGHS (1914-1997), was a key, frequently controversial figure of the Beat Generation. Born into wealth and Harvard-educated, Burroughs led an otherwise unconventional life and explored themes of addiction, consciousness, social control and the darkest aspects of the human condition through his widely-influential books including ‘Junkie’ (1953), ‘Naked Lunch’ (1959), ‘The Nova Trilogy’ (1961–1964), ‘Cities of the Red Night’ (1981), ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ (1983) and many more. Burroughs’ novels, novellas and short story collections shocked audiences with their explicit content, dark humor and fractured narratives (regularly employing his “cut-up method”), often reflecting his experiences on the fringes of society. Elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France, Jack Kerouac called William Burroughs the “greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift,” while Norman Mailer declared him “the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius”.

Laurie ANDERSON (b.1947) is one of America’s most celebrated, innovative and influential artists. A seminal figure in Contemporary Art and Grammy Award-winning musician, Ms. Anderson has produced pioneering works that defy categorization and have blurred the boundaries of performance, theater, visual art and experimental music/sound. Since the 1970’s, Ms. Anderson has published numerous books (and been the subject of several), produced videos (for PBS and MTV), films (including her feature-length “Home of the Brave” – featuring William S. Burroughs), radio pieces (for National Public Radio and BBC) and original scores for dance – including her groundbreaking collaboration in the 1980’s (on “Set and Reset”) with choreographer Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg. With the unanticipated popular appeal and U.K. radio chart success of her One Ten Records (and later Warner Brothers) single “O Superman,” Ms. Anderson’s recording career was launched in 1981 and unintended celebrity-status secured. Her live shows range from simple spoken word to elaborate multi-media stage performances such as Songs and Stories for Moby Dick (1999). In 2002, Ms. Anderson was appointed the first artist-in-residence of NASA which culminated in her 2004 touring solo performance The End of the Moon. In 2007 she received the prestigious Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for her outstanding contributions to the arts. The subject of a 2003 retrospective entitled “The Record of the Time: Sound in the Work of Laurie Anderson” that was organized by The Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon which travelled from France to Milan, Düsseldorf, Dublin and Tokyo through 2005, and a more recent survey of visual and installation art presented at CCBB in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in 2010, Ms. Anderson has had work acquired for the permanent collections of major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art/New York and has an ongoing partnership and extended loan that will provide a long-term home for exhibiting and presenting various “works-in-progress” at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts.

The “William S. BURROUGHS & Laurie ANDERSON: Language is a Virus” exhibition will delve into the ways both artists manipulate language to challenge conventional thought, explore the power of communication, and expose the potential pitfalls of information transmission in the modern world.

MORE ABOUT US: The Bob Rauschenberg Gallery was founded as The Gallery of Fine Art in 1979 on the Lee County campus of Florida Southwestern State College/FSW (then Edison Community College). On June 4th 2004, the Gallery of Fine Art was renamed the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery to honor and commemorate our long time association and friendship with the artist. Over more than three decades until his death, the Gallery worked closely with Rauschenberg to present world premiere exhibitions including multiple installations of the ¼ Mile or Two Furlong Piece. The artist insisted on naming the space the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery (versus the “Robert Rauschenberg Gallery”) as it was consistent with the intimate, informal relationship he maintained with both our local Southwest Florida community and FSW.

This event is open to the public, free of charge.

Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday 10 am – 4 pm and Saturday 11 am – 3 pm
Closed Sundays and Holidays.

Tel: (239) 489-9313
Web: www.RauschenbergGallery.com
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