Leigh Bowery
Encyclopedia
Leigh Bowery was an Australia
n performance art
ist, club promoter
, actor
, pop star
, model
and fashion designer, based in London
. Bowery is considered one of the more influential figures in the 1980s and 1990s London
and New York
art and fashion circles influencing a generation of artists and designers. His influence reached through the fashion, club and art worlds to impact, amongst others, Alexander McQueen
, Lucian Freud
, Vivienne Westwood
, Boy George
, Antony and the Johnsons
, John Galliano
, the Scissor Sisters
, David LaChapelle
, Lady Bunny
plus numerous Nu-Rave
bands and nightclubs in London and New York which arguably perpetuated his avant garde ideas.
suburb of Sunshine, Victoria
. He often compared his early life there to a cultural wasteland in which he did not fit well. He was a sensitive and multi-gifted child in "macho" surroundings and as a teenager discovered a whole new world by reading about the London new romantic scene from British fashion magazines such as i-D
. This inspired him to reinvent himself at the centre of the avant-garde
art world in London. His family was conservative and he often reflected on his parents who were actively involved in the local Salvation Army
. He was the older of two children, his sister Bronwyn being several years younger. He described his father as kind but macho and had a particularly close relationship with his mother from whom he inherited a love of dressmaking.
, and the two men became the first people in London to wear Bowery's creative designs. Collectively they were nicknamed the Three Kings. They were unemployed for several years and living on benefit, which was common in those days, and were eventually rehoused on the Commercial Road in the East End in a three-bedroom flat high on the 11th floor of a council tower block in one of the poorest and bleakest areas of London. All three would experiment with drugs (mainly downers), but within the year and after a huge fallout, David Walls moved out, leaving Bowery and Trojan to live together. At this time Bowery and Trojan briefly became lovers, but split soon after on Trojan's insistence.
At this time, Margaret Thatcher
was in power and, although they were making a good living, times were hard for Bowery without a trust fund. The only escape for them was in the secret underworld of often polysexual or gay
nightclubs.
Up until 1986 Bowery would describe himself as a fashion designer and club promoter. Although his early fashion career is often ignored, he had considerable artistic success and it included several collections in London Fashion week, shows at the ICA, The Camden Palace, New York, and Tokyo (see below for Fashion Collections and early Leigh Bowery models).
In January 1985 he started the now infamous polysexual Thursday disco club night "Taboo". Originally an underground venture, it quickly became London's Studio 54
, only much wilder, extremely more fashionable, and without the masses of celebrities – although these came flocking in later. For everyone stepping through the doors it was a truly unforgettable experience.
Over the coming years he was invited to host numerous club nights in New York, Tokyo, Rome, and elsewhere.
Contrary to popular belief, Bowery was not part of the New Romantic movement that was popular in Britain during the early 1980s. Though perhaps he is more properly placed within the context of early fashion clubs such as Cha Cha's at Heaven and the "Hard Times" movement, he was always at the centre of the pansexual set of young and fashionable Londoners.
From being a plump, studious, and often bullied child, Leigh grew up to often be uncomfortable in his skin, and used his frequently bizarre designs as an armour for his insecurities. As he got larger he used his costumes to exaggerate his size, and the effect was frequently overpowering and unforgettable for those who encountered him, the more so because of his confrontational style. Bowery was not a wallflower.
In the early days Bowery felt comfortable with describing himself as "gay", although he had intense and passionate friendships occasionally of a sexual nature with women, often in the form of a sadomasochistic-type relationship, with Bowery firmly in the role of master puppeteer. With his bizarre looks Leigh often had difficulties attracting the men he was sexually attracted to, and he would often describe having sex in risky underground situations such as "cottaging
", with unattractive individuals.
Unlike many of his club contemporaries Bowery was highly intelligent, widely read, and passionate about all forms of artistic expression. While he could be extremely witty and charming, he would often be a malicious fashion bully, intimidating friend and foe alike with his sharp tongue and accusations. These all reflected a sign of the times where "hardness" went hand in hand with the club scene.
Although Taboo was over by early 1987, Bowery was at the very heart of London's alternative fashion movement. But AIDS and hard drugs had influenced the scene, causing the death of his best friend and former lover Trojan, then of Taboo door whore and budding musician Marc Valtier. As a result Bowery experienced severe depression, which manifested itself in abusive unsafe sexual activities, often in cottaging and public cruising grounds. It was probably at this time he contracted HIV, although he kept this a closely guarded secret from most friends until days before his death. Being HIV-positive at this time was seen as a death sentence and there was much fear and discrimination to be faced – Bowery did not want to be described as an artist with AIDS, feeling it would overshadow any of his artistic achievements.
Soon after, he collaborated with the famous 1980s dancer Michael Clark, after having been first his costume-designer before eventually joining the company as a dancer. He also participated in multi-media events like I Am Kurious Oranj
and the play Hey, Luciani
, with Mark E. Smith
and the band, The Fall and on 15 July 1987 flew to Paris with the cult British band You You You to host their concert at Le Palace. In 1989, he hosted a special one-off Ball held in a massive disused West London warehouse starring Big Bang
as part of their Arabic Circus Tour that featured Danielle Dax
and Jayne County
as supporting artists.
In 1988 he had a week-long show in Anthony d'Offay
's prestigious Dering Street Gallery in London's West End, in which he lolled on a chaise longue behind a two-way mirror, primping and preening in a variety of outfits while visitors to the gallery looked on. The insouciance and audacity of this overt queer narcissism
captivated gallery goers, critics and other artists. Bowery's exquisite appearance, silence and intense self-absorption were further accentuated by his own recordings of random and abrasive traffic noises which were played for the show's duration. The very intimate and private was flung in the face of the public complete with a "street life" sound track, hinting perhaps at something still darker. In some outfits he appears like some strange roadside creature, like a cat that finally got the cream (of art world attention); in others he is the "Satan's Son" that he would whisper, years later, on his deathbed.
For all his art world exposure and contacts it seems peculiar now that no one suggested to Bowery that he might adopt the very viable strategy of Gilbert and George
– an earlier generation's living sculpture – and derive an income from selling images of himself rather than rely on occasional commissions, modeling work for Lucian Freud
, or design consultancy for Rifat Ozbek
. In the later years of his life the advantages of having an independent income started to become more obvious and Bowery looked to music, in the form of art rock/pop group Minty, to possibly provide this independent income stream. "I have a profile," he confided to former flatmate and fellow Australian Anne Holt, "but I have no money." Minty, he hoped, would provide a solution to this crux, although this wish eventually proved to be unfounded.
He later excited the fashion crowd with a performance at SMact, a short-lived SM Night at Bar Industria. Using Nazi costumes with a lesbian friend named Barbara, they turned concentration camp experimentation into SMart. The readers of Capital Gay
, the London weekly newspaper, turned on fellow performer Berkley, who had played the victim, and Barbara and Bowery weathered the storm.
In 1993 Bowery briefly formed the band Raw Sewage with leading clubbers Sheila Tequila and Stella Stein. They performed nude with their faces blacked up, wearing 18" platforms and merkins (pubic wigs), to the bemusement of audiences in London clubs and at the Love Ball in Amsterdam. But the collaboration ended in personality clashes. Bowery went on to appear as the "Madame Garbo" in "The Homosexual (or the difficulty of sexpressing oneself)" by Copi at Bagleys Warehouse in London's King's Cross.
In 1993 Bowery formed the band Minty with friend and former 1980s knitwear designer Richard Torry, Nicola Bateman and Matthew Glammore. Their single "Useless Man" "Boot licking, tit tweaking useless man..." which was remixed by The Grid
, "Plastic Bag" Which was preserved by the movie I Woke Up Early The Day I Died
along with their twisted onstage scatological performances caused The Sun
to describe them as the "sickest band in the world", of which Bowery was very proud. The single became a minor chart hit in The Netherlands, although friends felt that he had lost his true artistic self to cheap and obvious shock horror tactics, none of which were new.
During 1994 Leigh performed the "Fete worse than death" in Hoxton Square
. Bowery and Nicola Bateman (later, Nicola Bowery) presented their classic "Birth Show", a homage to John Waters
' "Female Trouble
", in which Bowery "gave birth" to Bateman, who was held under his costume and upside down using a specially-designed harness. Bowery would appear to enter the stage alone but toward the middle of the song birthed his partner who appeared as a very large baby covered in placenta
. The performance was revised for Lady Bunny
's Wigstock
event and captured in Wigstock: The Movie
.
In November 1994 Minty began a two week show at London's Freedom Cafe, including audience member Alexander McQueen
, but it was too much for Westminster City Council
, who closed the show down after only one night. Minty was a financial loss and represented a low point in his colourful career. A spin-off band called Offest later formed including artist Donald Urquhart.
Bowery was the nude subject of several of Lucian Freud
's later portraits, and travelled internationally to the opening events of his exhibitions. This modeling work provided him with a modest income of sorts for a period and he certainly relished Freud's connections to the British establishment.
and artist Andy Warhol
can be seen in his keen appreciation of bad taste, truly outlandish self presentation and a deep desire to shock and confuse. "I want to be the Andy Warhol of London" he once said. "Dressed-up," he was obviously "Modern Art on legs" (as Boy George
commented), but in daytime attire the badly-fitting, obvious, disturbing wigs are a nod to Warhol's self-presentation strategies that has thus far seemed invisible to both critics and friends alike.
Other art historical parallels include an early 80s attempt at Vincent van Gogh
type ear-cutting with friend Trojan (in an attempt to out do nightclub rivals), and as a result inflicted facial perforations that he was warned would not heal (reminiscent of Warhol's weeping wounds). Bowery made a full auto-couture appearance at the 1986 Warhol show Success is a job in New York at London's Serpentine Gallery
with Nicola and an unknown assistant.
He became known to a wider audience by appearing in a Post-Modernist
/Surrealist
series of television and cinema and commercials for the Pepe
jeans company, MTV London and other commissions such as stage work for rock band U2
. He also appeared regularly in articles, vox pops and as cover star in London's i-D
magazine. Bowery was also Art Director for the famous video for Massive Attack
's "Unfinished Sympathy
".
As a character he featured in the stage musical Taboo
that was based on the New Romantic
movement. It also featured actors playing Marilyn, Boy George
, Steve Strange
and other stars of the early 1980s. The musical, which was written by Mark Davies with music composed partly by Boy George
, was a London
West End hit. American media star Rosie O'Donnell
financed a much- altered version for Broadway, but this was not successful.
Johnny Rozsa
's photographs of Bowery have been exhibited in several museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney
, the Kunsthalle in Vienna
, and the Kunstverein in Hanover
.
he married his longtime friend Nicola Bateman on 13 May 1994, in Tower Hamlets
, London
, 7 months before his death from AIDS
-related illness at the (now closed and redeveloped) Middlesex Hospital
, Westminster
, London on New Year's Eve 1994, after a five-week battle that only a handful of friends were informed about.
Reportedly one death bed pronouncement "Tell them I've gone pig farming in Bolivia", illustrates the gallows humour and dark irony
that can be traced in much of his work. Among his last requests was that his middle name be unknown.
is based on Leigh Bowery.
Boy George recorded a tribute song on his 1995 album, Cheapness and Beauty
. The track is called "Satan's Butterfly Ball" and in his Taboo
musical, the Leigh Bowery character sings tracks like "Ich Bin Kunst" and "I'll Have You All".
Models:
Models for these shows included old friends such as:
Trojan (aka Gary Barnes, died 1987), David Walls, Peter Hammond (aka Space Princess, died 1993), Marc Vaultier (Mark Golding, died 1987), George Gallagher, James Payne, David LaChapelle
, Jim McGuire, Robert McGuire, Sandra Cosijn, Dezi Campbell and Malcolm Duffy.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
ist, club promoter
Promoter (entertainment)
An entertainment promoter i.e. music, wrestling, boxing etc is a person or company in the business of marketing and promoting live events such as concerts/gigs, boxing matches, sports entertainment , festivals, raves, and nightclubs.- Business model :Promoters are typically hired as independent...
, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, pop star
Pop Star
"Pop Star" is a 2005 single from Japanese singer Ken Hirai. The single went on to top the 2005 Oricon Charts and is known for its remarkable music video, featuring Ken in seven different personas, including a raccoon and his own manager. The Video also helped Ken break into the US and Canadian...
, model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
and fashion designer, based in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Bowery is considered one of the more influential figures in the 1980s and 1990s London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
art and fashion circles influencing a generation of artists and designers. His influence reached through the fashion, club and art worlds to impact, amongst others, Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE was a British fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows...
, Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud, OM, CH was a British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impasted portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time...
, Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
, Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
, Antony and the Johnsons
Antony and the Johnsons
Antony and the Johnsons is a music group presenting the work of Antony Hegarty and his collaborators.-Career:British experimental musician David Tibet of Current 93 heard a demo and offered to release Antony's music through his Durtro label. The debut album, Antony and the Johnsons, was released...
, John Galliano
John Galliano
John Charles Galliano CBE, RDI is a Gibraltan-born British fashion designer who was best known as head designer of French haute couture houses Givenchy and Christian Dior , and his own self titled fashion house.-Family:He was born in Gibraltar to a Gibraltarian father, Juan Galliano, and a...
, the Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters are an American band "spawned by the scuzzy, gay nightlife scene of New York" who took their name from a sexual position between two women also known as tribadism...
, David LaChapelle
David LaChapelle
David LaChapelle is a photographer and director who works in the fields of fashion, advertising, and fine art photography, and is noted for his surreal, unique, sexualized, and often humorous style.-Early life:...
, Lady Bunny
Lady Bunny
The Lady Bunny is an American drag queen originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee, who has lived in New York since the 1980s. She is the founder of the annual Wigstock event and is well-known as a nightclub DJ, promoter and celebrity...
plus numerous Nu-Rave
New Rave
New rave is a term applied to several types of music that fuse elements of electronic music, new wave, rock, indie, techno, bastard pop, breakbeat hardcore and electro house...
bands and nightclubs in London and New York which arguably perpetuated his avant garde ideas.
Early life
Leigh Bowery was born in 1961 in the MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
suburb of Sunshine, Victoria
Sunshine, Victoria
Sunshine is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia lying 11 to 13 km west of the CBD. Its Local Government Area is the City of Brimbank. At the 2006 Census, Sunshine had a population of 8,070.-History:...
. He often compared his early life there to a cultural wasteland in which he did not fit well. He was a sensitive and multi-gifted child in "macho" surroundings and as a teenager discovered a whole new world by reading about the London new romantic scene from British fashion magazines such as i-D
I-D
i-D is a British magazine dedicated to fashion, music, art and youth culture. i-D was founded by designer and former Vogue art director Terry Jones in 1980. The first issue was published in the form of a hand-stapled fanzine with text produced on a typewriter...
. This inspired him to reinvent himself at the centre of the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
art world in London. His family was conservative and he often reflected on his parents who were actively involved in the local Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
. He was the older of two children, his sister Bronwyn being several years younger. He described his father as kind but macho and had a particularly close relationship with his mother from whom he inherited a love of dressmaking.
London
After attending Melbourne High School, and one year of a fashion course there, he abandoned Australia and moved to London for good in 1980, initially to make his career as a fashion designer. Although this was a financial failure, it did garner him a small cult following and media interest. Eventually he was making a name for himself by dramatic performances of dance, music, and extreme exhibitionism, while wearing bizarre and very original outfits of his own design.Early career
He befriended two leading clubbers: Trojan (Guy Barnes), later a painter, and David Walls – later of the design team Gallagher Walls. Bowery moved in with them to a houseshare in Ladbroke GroveLadbroke Grove
Ladbroke Grove is a road in west London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is also sometimes the name given informally to the immediate area surrounding the road. Running from Notting Hill in the south to Kensal Green in the north, it is located in North Kensington and straddles...
, and the two men became the first people in London to wear Bowery's creative designs. Collectively they were nicknamed the Three Kings. They were unemployed for several years and living on benefit, which was common in those days, and were eventually rehoused on the Commercial Road in the East End in a three-bedroom flat high on the 11th floor of a council tower block in one of the poorest and bleakest areas of London. All three would experiment with drugs (mainly downers), but within the year and after a huge fallout, David Walls moved out, leaving Bowery and Trojan to live together. At this time Bowery and Trojan briefly became lovers, but split soon after on Trojan's insistence.
At this time, Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
was in power and, although they were making a good living, times were hard for Bowery without a trust fund. The only escape for them was in the secret underworld of often polysexual or gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
nightclubs.
Up until 1986 Bowery would describe himself as a fashion designer and club promoter. Although his early fashion career is often ignored, he had considerable artistic success and it included several collections in London Fashion week, shows at the ICA, The Camden Palace, New York, and Tokyo (see below for Fashion Collections and early Leigh Bowery models).
In January 1985 he started the now infamous polysexual Thursday disco club night "Taboo". Originally an underground venture, it quickly became London's Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
, only much wilder, extremely more fashionable, and without the masses of celebrities – although these came flocking in later. For everyone stepping through the doors it was a truly unforgettable experience.
Over the coming years he was invited to host numerous club nights in New York, Tokyo, Rome, and elsewhere.
Contrary to popular belief, Bowery was not part of the New Romantic movement that was popular in Britain during the early 1980s. Though perhaps he is more properly placed within the context of early fashion clubs such as Cha Cha's at Heaven and the "Hard Times" movement, he was always at the centre of the pansexual set of young and fashionable Londoners.
From being a plump, studious, and often bullied child, Leigh grew up to often be uncomfortable in his skin, and used his frequently bizarre designs as an armour for his insecurities. As he got larger he used his costumes to exaggerate his size, and the effect was frequently overpowering and unforgettable for those who encountered him, the more so because of his confrontational style. Bowery was not a wallflower.
In the early days Bowery felt comfortable with describing himself as "gay", although he had intense and passionate friendships occasionally of a sexual nature with women, often in the form of a sadomasochistic-type relationship, with Bowery firmly in the role of master puppeteer. With his bizarre looks Leigh often had difficulties attracting the men he was sexually attracted to, and he would often describe having sex in risky underground situations such as "cottaging
Cottaging
Cottaging is a British gay slang term referring to anonymous sex between men in a public lavatory , or cruising for sexual partners with the intention of having sex elsewhere...
", with unattractive individuals.
Unlike many of his club contemporaries Bowery was highly intelligent, widely read, and passionate about all forms of artistic expression. While he could be extremely witty and charming, he would often be a malicious fashion bully, intimidating friend and foe alike with his sharp tongue and accusations. These all reflected a sign of the times where "hardness" went hand in hand with the club scene.
Although Taboo was over by early 1987, Bowery was at the very heart of London's alternative fashion movement. But AIDS and hard drugs had influenced the scene, causing the death of his best friend and former lover Trojan, then of Taboo door whore and budding musician Marc Valtier. As a result Bowery experienced severe depression, which manifested itself in abusive unsafe sexual activities, often in cottaging and public cruising grounds. It was probably at this time he contracted HIV, although he kept this a closely guarded secret from most friends until days before his death. Being HIV-positive at this time was seen as a death sentence and there was much fear and discrimination to be faced – Bowery did not want to be described as an artist with AIDS, feeling it would overshadow any of his artistic achievements.
Soon after, he collaborated with the famous 1980s dancer Michael Clark, after having been first his costume-designer before eventually joining the company as a dancer. He also participated in multi-media events like I Am Kurious Oranj
I Am Kurious Oranj
I Am Kurious Oranj is a 1988 album by British rock band The Fall. The album was written as the soundtrack for the ballet "I am Curious, Orange", produced by contemporary dance group Michael Clark & Company, and themed loosely around the 300th anniversary of William of Orange's accession to the...
and the play Hey, Luciani
Hey, Luciani
Hey! Luciani: The Life and Codex of John Paul I is a play written by Mark E. Smith, best known as the lead singer of the band The Fall. Described by its author as "a cross between Shakespeare and The Prisoner", the play centres on the mysterious death of Pope John Paul I in 1978.Starring Smith and...
, with Mark E. Smith
Mark E. Smith
Mark Edward Smith is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman, and only constant member of the English post-punk band The Fall.-Early life:...
and the band, The Fall and on 15 July 1987 flew to Paris with the cult British band You You You to host their concert at Le Palace. In 1989, he hosted a special one-off Ball held in a massive disused West London warehouse starring Big Bang
Big Bang (British band)
Big Bang were a British electronic synthpop duo that came to prominence in the late 1980s. The band consisted of Laurence Malice and Iain Williams...
as part of their Arabic Circus Tour that featured Danielle Dax
Danielle Dax
Danielle Dax is an experimental musician and producer most active from the late-1970s to the mid-1990s. She was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.- Biography :...
and Jayne County
Jayne County
Jayne County , formerly known as Wayne County, is an American male-to-female transsexual performer, musician and actress whose career has spanned several decades. County would go on to be known as rock's first transsexual singer...
as supporting artists.
In 1988 he had a week-long show in Anthony d'Offay
Anthony d'Offay
Anthony d'Offay is a British art dealer, he closed his gallery - Anthony d’Offay Gallery - in 2002.-Life and career:...
's prestigious Dering Street Gallery in London's West End, in which he lolled on a chaise longue behind a two-way mirror, primping and preening in a variety of outfits while visitors to the gallery looked on. The insouciance and audacity of this overt queer narcissism
Narcissism
Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
captivated gallery goers, critics and other artists. Bowery's exquisite appearance, silence and intense self-absorption were further accentuated by his own recordings of random and abrasive traffic noises which were played for the show's duration. The very intimate and private was flung in the face of the public complete with a "street life" sound track, hinting perhaps at something still darker. In some outfits he appears like some strange roadside creature, like a cat that finally got the cream (of art world attention); in others he is the "Satan's Son" that he would whisper, years later, on his deathbed.
For all his art world exposure and contacts it seems peculiar now that no one suggested to Bowery that he might adopt the very viable strategy of Gilbert and George
Gilbert and George
Gilbert & George are two artists who work together as a collaborative duo. Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore have become famous for their distinctive, highly formal appearance and manner and their brightly coloured graphic-style photo-based artworks.-Early life:Gilbert Proesch was...
– an earlier generation's living sculpture – and derive an income from selling images of himself rather than rely on occasional commissions, modeling work for Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud, OM, CH was a British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impasted portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time...
, or design consultancy for Rifat Ozbek
Rifat Ozbek
Rifat Ozbek is a Turkish-born fashion designer, known for his exotic, ethnically-inspired outfits. He has been named British Designer of the Year in 1988 and 1992.-Biography:Ozbek was born in Istanbul, Turkey and grew up in in a yali on the Bosphorus...
. In the later years of his life the advantages of having an independent income started to become more obvious and Bowery looked to music, in the form of art rock/pop group Minty, to possibly provide this independent income stream. "I have a profile," he confided to former flatmate and fellow Australian Anne Holt, "but I have no money." Minty, he hoped, would provide a solution to this crux, although this wish eventually proved to be unfounded.
He later excited the fashion crowd with a performance at SMact, a short-lived SM Night at Bar Industria. Using Nazi costumes with a lesbian friend named Barbara, they turned concentration camp experimentation into SMart. The readers of Capital Gay
Capital Gay
Capital Gay was a weekly free gay newspaper published in London. It was founded by Graham McKerrow and Michael Mason and published its first edition on June 26, 1981, Pride Week. Its last edition appeared on June 30, 1995, having become Britain's longest-running gay newspaper...
, the London weekly newspaper, turned on fellow performer Berkley, who had played the victim, and Barbara and Bowery weathered the storm.
In 1993 Bowery briefly formed the band Raw Sewage with leading clubbers Sheila Tequila and Stella Stein. They performed nude with their faces blacked up, wearing 18" platforms and merkins (pubic wigs), to the bemusement of audiences in London clubs and at the Love Ball in Amsterdam. But the collaboration ended in personality clashes. Bowery went on to appear as the "Madame Garbo" in "The Homosexual (or the difficulty of sexpressing oneself)" by Copi at Bagleys Warehouse in London's King's Cross.
Minty and Freud
The Grid
The Grid are an English electronic dance group, consisting of Richard Norris and David Ball , with guest contributions from other musicians...
, "Plastic Bag" Which was preserved by the movie I Woke Up Early The Day I Died
I Woke Up Early The Day I Died
I Woke Up Early The Day I Died is a camp comedy film written by Edward D. Wood, Jr.. The film, directed by Aris Iliopulos, stars Billy Zane, Tippi Hedren, Ron Perlman, and Christina Ricci, among many others.-Production:...
along with their twisted onstage scatological performances caused The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
to describe them as the "sickest band in the world", of which Bowery was very proud. The single became a minor chart hit in The Netherlands, although friends felt that he had lost his true artistic self to cheap and obvious shock horror tactics, none of which were new.
During 1994 Leigh performed the "Fete worse than death" in Hoxton Square
Hoxton Square
Hoxton Square is a garden square situated in Hoxton in the London Borough of Hackney, in London's East End. Formerly home to industrial premises, since the 1990s it has become the heart of the Hoxton arts and media scene, as well as being a hub of the thriving local entertainment district...
. Bowery and Nicola Bateman (later, Nicola Bowery) presented their classic "Birth Show", a homage to John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
' "Female Trouble
Female Trouble
Female Trouble is a 1974 dark comedy film co-composed, filmed, co-edited, written, produced, and directed by John Waters starring Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, Michael Potter, Cookie Mueller, and Susan Walsh....
", in which Bowery "gave birth" to Bateman, who was held under his costume and upside down using a specially-designed harness. Bowery would appear to enter the stage alone but toward the middle of the song birthed his partner who appeared as a very large baby covered in placenta
Placenta
The placenta is an organ that connects the developing fetus to the uterine wall to allow nutrient uptake, waste elimination, and gas exchange via the mother's blood supply. "True" placentas are a defining characteristic of eutherian or "placental" mammals, but are also found in some snakes and...
. The performance was revised for Lady Bunny
Lady Bunny
The Lady Bunny is an American drag queen originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee, who has lived in New York since the 1980s. She is the founder of the annual Wigstock event and is well-known as a nightclub DJ, promoter and celebrity...
's Wigstock
Wigstock
Wigstock was an annual outdoor drag festival that began in the 1980s in New York's East Village that took place on Labor Day. Traditionally the festival would act as the unofficial end to the summer for the gay community of New York City...
event and captured in Wigstock: The Movie
Wigstock: The Movie
Wigstock: The Movie is a 1995 documentary film focusing on Wigstock, the annual drag music festival that had been held New York City's East Village through the 1980s and 1990s. The film presents a number of performances from the 1994 festival, including Crystal Waters, Deee-Lite, Jackie Beat,...
.
In November 1994 Minty began a two week show at London's Freedom Cafe, including audience member Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE was a British fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows...
, but it was too much for Westminster City Council
Westminster City Council
Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council and is entitled to be known as a city council, which is a rare distinction in the United Kingdom. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors...
, who closed the show down after only one night. Minty was a financial loss and represented a low point in his colourful career. A spin-off band called Offest later formed including artist Donald Urquhart.
Bowery was the nude subject of several of Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud, OM, CH was a British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impasted portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time...
's later portraits, and travelled internationally to the opening events of his exhibitions. This modeling work provided him with a modest income of sorts for a period and he certainly relished Freud's connections to the British establishment.
Influences
Glimmers of the influences of film maker John WatersJohn Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
and artist Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
can be seen in his keen appreciation of bad taste, truly outlandish self presentation and a deep desire to shock and confuse. "I want to be the Andy Warhol of London" he once said. "Dressed-up," he was obviously "Modern Art on legs" (as Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
commented), but in daytime attire the badly-fitting, obvious, disturbing wigs are a nod to Warhol's self-presentation strategies that has thus far seemed invisible to both critics and friends alike.
Other art historical parallels include an early 80s attempt at Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
type ear-cutting with friend Trojan (in an attempt to out do nightclub rivals), and as a result inflicted facial perforations that he was warned would not heal (reminiscent of Warhol's weeping wounds). Bowery made a full auto-couture appearance at the 1986 Warhol show Success is a job in New York at London's Serpentine Gallery
Serpentine Gallery
The Serpentine Gallery is an art gallery in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, central London. It focuses on modern and contemporary art. The exhibitions, architecture, education and public programmes attract approximately 750,000 visitors a year...
with Nicola and an unknown assistant.
He became known to a wider audience by appearing in a Post-Modernist
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
/Surrealist
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
series of television and cinema and commercials for the Pepe
Pepe
-People:Pepe is a nickname for José , and an Italian surname.Pepe is a nickname for any person called José, but is also often used with different connotations. Etymologically, it derives from the name of Saint Joseph, the reputed father of Jesus. Thus 'PP' = padre putativo...
jeans company, MTV London and other commissions such as stage work for rock band U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
. He also appeared regularly in articles, vox pops and as cover star in London's i-D
I-D
i-D is a British magazine dedicated to fashion, music, art and youth culture. i-D was founded by designer and former Vogue art director Terry Jones in 1980. The first issue was published in the form of a hand-stapled fanzine with text produced on a typewriter...
magazine. Bowery was also Art Director for the famous video for Massive Attack
Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English DJ and trip hop duo from Bristol, England consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Working with co-producers, as well as various session musicians and guest vocalists, they make records and tour live. The duo are considered to be of the trip...
's "Unfinished Sympathy
Unfinished Sympathy
"Unfinished Sympathy" is a song by English electronica group Massive Attack, from their debut album Blue Lines . The song was written collaboratively by the members of the group , with Jonathan "Jonny Dollar" Sharp and Shara Nelson, the latter providing lead vocals for the song...
".
As a character he featured in the stage musical Taboo
Taboo (musical)
Taboo is a stage musical with a book by Mark Davies , lyrics by Boy George, and music by George and Kevan Frost....
that was based on the New Romantic
New Romantic
New Romanticism , was a pop culture movement in the United Kingdom that began around 1979 and peaked around 1981. Developing in London nightclubs such as Billy's and The Blitz and spreading to other major cities in the UK, it was based around flamboyant, eccentric fashion and new wave music...
movement. It also featured actors playing Marilyn, Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
, Steve Strange
Steve Strange
Steve Strange , is a Welsh pop singer, best known as the lead singer and frontman of the 1980s pop group Visage...
and other stars of the early 1980s. The musical, which was written by Mark Davies with music composed partly by Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
, was a London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
West End hit. American media star Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell
Roseann "Rosie" O'Donnell is an American stand-up comedian, actress, author and television personality. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family...
financed a much- altered version for Broadway, but this was not successful.
Johnny Rozsa
Johnny Rozsa
Johnny Rozsa is a New York-based photographer, specializing in fashion, portrait, and celebrity photography.-Early life:Rozsa was born and raised in Nairobi, the son of Jewish Hungarian-Czech parents...
's photographs of Bowery have been exhibited in several museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, the Kunsthalle in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, and the Kunstverein in Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
.
Personal life
Although Bowery always described himself as gayGay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
he married his longtime friend Nicola Bateman on 13 May 1994, in Tower Hamlets
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough to the east of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It is in the eastern part of London and covers much of the traditional East End. It also includes much of the redeveloped Docklands region of London, including West India Docks...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 7 months before his death from AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
-related illness at the (now closed and redeveloped) Middlesex Hospital
Middlesex Hospital
The Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, United Kingdom. First opened in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally closed in 2005. Its staff and services were transferred to various sites...
, Westminster
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...
, London on New Year's Eve 1994, after a five-week battle that only a handful of friends were informed about.
Reportedly one death bed pronouncement "Tell them I've gone pig farming in Bolivia", illustrates the gallows humour and dark irony
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
that can be traced in much of his work. Among his last requests was that his middle name be unknown.
Popular References
The character Vulva in the British TV comedy series SpacedSpaced
Spaced is a British television sitcom written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, and directed by Edgar Wright. It is noted for its rapid-fire editing, frequent pop culture references and jokes, eclectic music, and occasional displays of surrealism and non-sequitur humour...
is based on Leigh Bowery.
Boy George recorded a tribute song on his 1995 album, Cheapness and Beauty
Cheapness and Beauty
Cheapness and Beauty is an album by Boy George, released in 1995. It peaked at number 44 on the UK Albums Chart.-Overview:The album opens with a cover version of Iggy Pop's "Funtime", which was released as a single and reached #45 in the UK Singles Chart...
. The track is called "Satan's Butterfly Ball" and in his Taboo
Taboo (musical)
Taboo is a stage musical with a book by Mark Davies , lyrics by Boy George, and music by George and Kevan Frost....
musical, the Leigh Bowery character sings tracks like "Ich Bin Kunst" and "I'll Have You All".
Fashion collections and show information
Fashion collections:- "Hobo": New York Fashion Week. 1982.
- "Pakis from Outer Space": Camden Palace for London Fashion Week. 1982/83.
- "Mincing Queens": Institute of Contemporary ArtsInstitute of Contemporary ArtsThe Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
'Performing Clothes' for London Fashion Week and The Hacienda Club, Manchester. 1984. - "Disease / Spastic": Riverside Studios and Earls Court for London Fashion Week. 1986.
Models:
Models for these shows included old friends such as:
Trojan (aka Gary Barnes, died 1987), David Walls, Peter Hammond (aka Space Princess, died 1993), Marc Vaultier (Mark Golding, died 1987), George Gallagher, James Payne, David LaChapelle
David LaChapelle
David LaChapelle is a photographer and director who works in the fields of fashion, advertising, and fine art photography, and is noted for his surreal, unique, sexualized, and often humorous style.-Early life:...
, Jim McGuire, Robert McGuire, Sandra Cosijn, Dezi Campbell and Malcolm Duffy.
Partial videography
- "Generations of Love" (1990), Baillie Walsh for Boy George
- "Teach" (1992), Charles Atlas
- "A Smashing Night Out" (1994), Matthew Glamorre
- "Death in Vegas" (1994), Mark Hasler
- Performance at Fort Asperen (1994)
- "Flour" (single screen version) (1995), Angus Cook
- "U2: Popmart - Live from Mexico City" (1997), Dancer during 'Lemon Mix'
- "Read Only Memory" (estratto) (1998), John Maybury
Audio
Video
- Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art movie
- BBC Clothes Show excerpt with Leigh Bowery
- Donut Party hosted by Michael Alig at Twin Donuts with many New York Club regulars including Isaac Mizrahi
- Bowery footage by UK fashion photographer Nick Knight on SHOWstudio.com
- “The Legend of Leigh Bowery – Full Movie”