At the back Arts arts@theactuary.com
From Brixton to Berlin, Natalie Li unravels the many guises of a glam rock megastar
Arts “I was diversifying all over the place,” says
SOUND AND VISION 36
David Bowie through my headset in one of his interviews as I wonder around the Victoria and Albert Museum’s retrospective exhibition, David Bowie Is. His words are an understatement. Bowie was, and is, something to everyone across the globe. Diversifying transformed him into a legend who held power to stir intrigue, shake up the traditional and cause controversy through his music and celebrated style. My earliest memory is of Bowie walking up those winding, topsy-turvy staircases in the 1986 Jim Henson film Labyrinth. Bowie planted dark and sinister images in my head, resulting in nightmares as a young child. But as I grew older I began to appreciate the bold and innovative Bowie, with all his weird and wonderful eccentricities. To some, Bowie is the epitome of glam rock pop – a gender-bending mystery who treads a fine and inconsistent line between fantasy and reality. To others he is elusive, complicated and at the moment, an omnipotent music legend. The V&A offers an extraordinary glimpse into Bowie’s glitzy controversial career through this lively exhibition, which transports you into the heart, mind and soul of the freakish pop star who rose to fame after the invention of his spangly, lipstick-wearing stage persona – Ziggy Stardust. Ziggy’s androgynous appearance had a powerful influence on pop culture and signified changing times. “It’s taken me a long time to admit, even to myself, let alone you, that it was the vision and not yet the sound that hooked me up,” said actress and lifelong Bowie fan Tilda Swinton, in a touching speech at the opening of the exhibition in March. Swinton appeared in the video for Bowie’s latest single ‘The Stars (Are Out Tonight)’. Addressing an absent Bowie, she said: “You have remained the reliable mortal in amongst all the immortal shapes you have thrown. “Yet, I think the thing I’m loving the most about the last few weeks is how clear it now is
THE ACTUARY • May 2013 www.theactuary.com
p36_37_may_arts_FINAL•KW.indd 36
23/04/2013 08:56
