Performance Artist Laurie Anderson Marries a Woman in Impromptu San Francisco Wedding

Laurie Anderson, the renowned performance artist and widow of musician Lou Reed, entered into a same-sex marriage over the weekend — but was it a serious commitment or a bit of art?

Anderson and French artist Sophie Calle exchanged vows in a ceremony that “was less a traditional legal rite and more an instant performance piece,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Anderson, a New Yorker, was in San Francisco for the screening of the new film she wrote and directed, Heart of a Dog, Sunday night at the San Francisco Film Society’s Doc Fest. At a pre-screening reception at the Swedenborgian Church, Calle proposed to Anderson, and they decided to get married immediately, the paper reports.

Anderson’s brother, Thor, officiated the ceremony, and the couple referred to their witnesses, who included several film society staffers, as “wood spirits,” a nod to the historic church’s elaborate garden, according to the Chronicle.

“One report said that there was a third spouse, a woman named Susan Woods; others said the wedding involved only two,” the Chronicle notes. “Whether a couple or a triad, I don’t think they are registered at Crate & Barrel.”

Anderson and Reed were together for 21 years and married for five before his death in 2013. Anderson’s new film is a meditation on loss, including the deaths of Reed, Anderson’s mother, and her beloved dog Lolabelle. 

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