LONDON — The very thought of encapsulating the idea of Leigh Bowery inside a gallery house shouldn’t work. He was not somebody who introduced artwork objects into the world, however was as a substitute an embodiment of concepts and acts that may no extra simply be categorized as singularly efficiency artwork than as trend design or dance. Curator Fiontán Moran emphasizes this outsized character by including the titular exclamation mark for Tate Fashionable’s Leigh Bowery!, which manages to speak through some loud curating the visceral creativity of Bowery’s life and work, whereas additionally clearly and diligently guiding us chronologically by way of key eras and themes.
As a result of the person himself was the artwork, we might discover him unfold throughout a plethora of codecs, from pictures snapped at cut up second moments of intimacy or bodily transgression in golf equipment, to the now empty shells of outfits (the phrase “costumes” denotes detachment whereas Bowery appeared to “live” his clothes), snippets of magazines, and video appearances. In Bowery’s lifetime, few of those codecs existed in a gallery context — they have been a part of his social world; he lived his artwork largely in nightclubs, on the road, or in performances. Garishly coloured partitions, Star Trek-themed wallpaper, disco lights, and a mirror that bears the phrase “Would you let yourself in?” — echoing the query the bouncer at Bowery and Tony Gordon’s membership Taboo would ask badly dressed punters in 1985 — make tangible for the customer a zeitgeist the place dressing as flamboyantly as potential in golf equipment and social scenes was the final word type of self-expression. Moran rightly notes that within the absence of social media this was the simplest outlet for public self-expression. Costuming, together with head-to-toe polka dots, faux lips affixed by way of pierced cheeks, and headgear bearing mild bulbs on both facet, illustrates how gown facilitated an idea of efficiency that went past typical notions of trend and, typically, gender.
Set up view of Leigh Bowery! at Tate Fashionable. Again wall: video of Michael Clark performing in a fancy dress partly designed by Bowery (picture Olivia McEwan/Hyperallergic)
The captions, that are written in a conversational tone and keep away from jargon, are a number of the simplest in current reminiscence. They current this slice of British historical past in a language that ought to resonate with broad audiences. Setting the scene: “Leigh Bowery (1961–1994). A small town boy from Sunshine, Australia. He’s bored. Inspired by the punk scene [he] leaves fashion college and arrives in London in October 1980.” Elsewhere, capturing simply how necessary a platform golf equipment have been within the absence of social media: “The 1980s was the era of club culture – no social media, only hand-made or word-of-mouth invites. IYKYK.”
Many guests who’re unfamiliar with Bowery may even see a polaroid of him trying outré or weird and surprise why. Over time, his use of make-up grew to become sculptural, and his clothes, which he designed and made — typically along with his pal, collaborator, and eventual spouse, Nicola (Rainbird) Bateman — more and more manipulated his ample body and physicality. He flouted custom in his response to differing sociopolitical conditions. In 1980, Bowery was underneath the age of consent and, because the captions notice, he couldn’t “[lawfully] freely embrace his sexuality” but, they proceed, “He did.” Moreover, by bringing humor, parody, and slapstick to catwalks and way of life TV reveals, he “[disrupted] established conventions of fashion, high society and culture”: His recreation of the well-known “Hello Boys” Wonderbra business as a big man is a gleeful satire. Nothing was off limits, with situations of blackface — rightfully criticized by his contemporaries — in references to (supposedly parodic) minstrel reveals. Extra constructive performances, nevertheless, focused up to date attitudes towards sexuality and gender: We’re advised that his marriage to Nicola was partly as a result of his worry of being deported for having intercourse in a public rest room in 1994. In a single efficiency with Bateman, he wore a nylon nude swimsuit with comically exaggerated breasts and “gave birth” to Nicola, who burst forth nude and tangled in sausages representing the umbilicus, a wry reversal of normative gender roles.
Copy of Leigh Bowery’s recreated “Hello Boys” advert (picture Olivia McEwan/Hyperallergic)
The sheer breadth of his oeuvre on show right here, be it gown, dance, or efficiency, communicates that he represents excess of the Nineteen Eighties New Romantic music motion, or subsequent tv parodies of what the final consuming public might take into account “weird performance art.” Bowery created a visible vocabulary all his personal. Two nude portraits of him by Lucien Freud reveal a extra susceptible facet to him. Regardless of the depth of those guttural work, they really feel muted in tone in comparison with bodysuits emblazoned with the phrase “A CUNT,” put in on the other wall.
Moran defined to me that the exhibition was born of longstanding discussions with the director of exhibitions and packages at Tate Fashionable, Catherine Wooden, about how inventive observe was rethought all through the Nineteen Eighties, with Bowery amongst equally influential and avant-garde figures reminiscent of filmmaker Derek Jarman and dancer Michael Clark — the latter of whom was a frequent collaborator; Bowery designed costumes for Clark’s firm and took part in some dance performances, in addition to experimental movies. These artists all labored in a time of austerity within the UK and sometimes exterior the accepted channels of the artwork market. Whereas not explicitly acknowledged within the present, Moran means that, given the present sociopolitical panorama of austerity and unease, Bowery’s work — certainly, his complete method to artwork and life, “continually shifting appearance and discipline” — might “hopefully speak to a contemporary generation of artists and creatives.” On this sense, the present has pulled off a uncommon achievement: academically presenting an period of artwork historical past whereas additionally resonating with and probably inspiring the sensitivities of in the present day. In a up to date society coloured, or slightly made creatively bland, by the homogenizing issue of social media, one yearns once more for such an authentic artist who had the balls to stay two sequined fingers as much as accepted norms.
Set up view of one in every of Leigh Bowery’s costumes for a efficiency (picture Olivia McEwan/Hyperallergic)
Costume designs by Leigh Bowery for the Michael Clark Dance Firm (picture Natalie Haddad/Hyperallergic)
Costumes created and worn by Bowery on show in Leigh Bowery! (picture Natalie Haddad/Hyperallergic)
Costume fragments and pictures of clothes designed and worn by Bowery (picture Natalie Haddad/Hyperallergic)
{Photograph} by Derek Ridgers of Marc Vaultier, Taboo’s doorman (picture Natalie Haddad/Hyperallergic)
Video of Bowery performing in faux lips on show in Leigh Bowery! (picture Natalie Haddad/Hyperallergic)
Leigh Bowery! continues at Tate Fashionable (Bankside, London, England) by way of August 31. The exhibition was curated by Fiontán Moran, Jessica Baxter, Nicola Rainbird, and Margery King.
