Leigh Bowery
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Leigh Bowery (March 26, 1961, Sunshine, near Melbourne – December 31, 1994 London) was an extraordinary homosexual performance artist and designer of outfits that might loosely be called clothes.
He had a colourful exhibitionist career following his arrival in London in 1980, making a name for himself by dramatic performances of dance, music and simple exhibitionism, while wearing bizarre and very original outfits of his own design. He was frequently seen performing in Taboo, a night club he operated near Leicester Square. A large man, he used his costumes to exaggerate his size and the effects were frequently overpowering for those who encountered him, the more so because of his confrontational style.
In the late 1980s, Bowery collaborated as a dancer with the post-Punk ballet dancer Michael Clark, after having been the costume-designer for a number of years. He also participated in multi-media events like I Am Curious, Orange and the play Hey, Luciani, with Mark E. Smith and The Fall.
He became more widely known by appearing in a Post-Modernist/Surrealist series of television and cinema and commercials for the Pepe jeans company.
Bowery was painted in a series of nude portraits by Lucian Freud, and travelled internationally to the opening events of their exhibitions.
He married his long-term female companion Nicola Bateman some months before his death from AIDS-related illness.
Bowery received posthumous exposure in the United States from the Broadway musical, Taboo produced there by Rosie O'Donnell, after running for 16 months in London's West End. Bowery's career is described more straightforwardly in a 2002 documentary The Legend of Leigh Bowery, directed by Charles Atlas.
External links
Text
- Leigh Bowery Tribute Website (http://www.leighbowery.com.br)
- Goodbye to the Boy from Sunshine (http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~karlpeter/zeugma/inters/bowery.htm)
- Posthumous New York exhibition prospectus (http://hotwired.wired.com/retina/95/31/review/)
- Taboo in London (http://www.albemarle-london.com/taboo.html)
Video
- Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art movie (http://media.f2.com.au/?rid=13303&skin=smh)
- BBC Clothes Show excerpt with Leigh Bowery (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/clothesshow/videoclips/video1.shtml)