A latex stage costume or two, playing with gender roles, producing rock and roll classic, R&B dance tunes and epic prog rock tunes, and reinventing on a scale nobody has ever managed; David Bowie presented all this and more to his adoring fans across his unique career. The new huge touring archive exhibit David Bowie: On Tour, brings much of the iconic musician’s ephemera into museums and other specific spaces, where fans as well as the curious can come to understand a man who gave us so much art, music, couture and innovation.
What attendees will find in the exhibition slowly making its way across the UK are one hundred rare items from the Thin White Duke (just one of Bowie’s many personas), with many never-before-displayed artifacts. From stage outfits to lyrics written by the man himself, to unrealized film scripts (as well as a musician, Bowie acted on stage, in video and in film) to Ziggy Stardust-era costumes and instruments (Ziggy, maybe Bowie’s most infamous persona).
There are also personal Polariods included, taken at various times in David Bowie’s life, for various make-up and costume fittings. So, one gets to see how Bowie transformed into the well-known characters he became.
Section 1 of the exhibit, called ‘Bowie Through a Lens’, relies heavily on photos. Work here comes via the lenses of Terry O’Neill, Mick Rock, and Sukita to name a few. Section 2 ‘All the Somebody People’ sets its focuses on Bowie’s onstage and in the studio work across four eras. Section 3 ‘Hooked to the Silver Screen’, focuses on Bowie’s on-screen performances. Music video storyboard and costumes, contact sheets from film sets and scripts are featured in this section.
The last section of the exhibit, ‘I Can’t Give Everything Away’, showcases instruments Bowie used at the beginning of his career (included is the Grafton Alto saxophone his father bought for him in 1961, the same dad who was Peter Frampton’s art teacher!) to a harmonica microphone used on his last live tour. Also included are personal items, like Post-It Note conversations and song charts.
Music visionary, concert performer who had no peer, fashion icon, visual media innovator, there really was only one David Bowie as David Bowie; On Tour, surely makes clear.
For more info, go here: David Bowie: On Tour
