David Bowie: Rock Theater (Part3)

Written by

Jude Bautista

With the recent passing of David Bowie last January 10, 2016, a look back at the achievements of a true artist and icon spanning six decades, in several art forms is a must. Read Part 1– Its Ok to be Different, Part 2 – Sexual Mystique, Part 3 –Rock Theater.

Elvis and Lennon were certainly more popular but creatively, culturally, politically no one has had a bigger impact than David Bowie. He has created music genres-Plastic Soul, New Wave and indirectly influenced Heavy Metal, Punk and even Grunge. He has expanded his creativity to acting, film, and most definitely fashion. His hair, style, and stage presence brought on the phrase Rock Theater, influencing almost every successful artist we see today. Every time words such as otherworldly, unique, bold, crop up Bowie comes to mind.

ACTOR

 In 1980 Bowie made his Broadway Debut in THE ELEPHANT MAN. In an interview he said, “The Elephant Man appealed to me because I have this eclectic thing about freaks, isolationists and alienated people. I gather information on people like that.”

He performed without use of heavy make up. The performance was based solely on his movement, disfigured legs, manipulating his voice and misshapen stance every night. His earlier training as mime helped him achieve desired effect. Critics praised Bowie for his acting abilities in this role.

David Bowie Sound and Vision, Narrated by Jonathan Pryce

Ashes to ashes music video director David Mallet said, “David’s influence on early music videos was the most important. He wasn’t afraid to be surreal, to go back to French silent surrealist movies. He wasn’t afraid to do anything.”

Ashes to Ashes

By 1986 Bowie starred as the enigmatic Jareth the Goblin King in LABYRINTH with the young Jennifer Connelly. Again as a kid I was hooked by the involvement of Jim Henson doing a lot of the puppetry work. Henson by then was a star having produced SESAME STREET & THE MUPPET SHOW. Of course Bowie had long hair and had that mysterious flair about him. Although not a commercial success it later became a cult classic especially with Bowie fans. Character designer Brian Froud gave Jareth a swagger stick with a crystal, which from a distance looked like a mic. The tight pants was also intentional, the look was supposed to be the idealized fantasy version of a pop star.

His acting career started way before Labyrinth, and was cast in WWII epic MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. LAWRENCE (1983). In between he’s had dozens of TV appearances as well. His film roles as an actor vary from Pontius Pilate in THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (1988) to Nikola Tesla in THE PRESTIGE (2006) with lead actors Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman and Michael Cain. Bowie had a cameo in ZOOLANDER in 2000 as a judge of the Walk off battle between Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. ZOOLANDER2 will be released in February 2016. Although the role was short it was an indication of Bowie’s influence that extended to fashion.

David Bowie judges Zoolander walk off battle

FASHION

It was a symbiotic relationship that he had with designers. Their creations were a visual of his music. Bowie’s music and flamboyance gave life to designers’ creations. Characters Ziggy Stardust, Alladin Sane, The Thin White Duke came alive and changed our world. Later on Bowie added so much of his flair and panache to colored suits. Whatever he was wearing, whenever it was a reflection of his identity and enduring style.

In 1971 Bowie’s over the top black jumpsuit for Ziggy Stardust and other costumes were by Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto. Based on the kimono it was originally intended for women. In an interview with ELLE Yamamoto said, “When he (Bowie) visited Tokyo, I took him to a market and he was delighted to find an over-the-shoulder bag, which he bought. But actually it was of a type made for Japanese bus drivers! How would I describe him? Sensitive, bold, and dynamic. I was impressed at the way he totally connected with his audience.” Yamamoto was the first designer to hold a fashion show in Moscow’s Red Square post cold war in 1993. Considered as a Super show it included fashion, dancing and fireworks.

Bowie worked with designers such as Freddie Buretti, Natasha Korniloff Pierrot, and Michael Fish. His rule with all of them was simple, “it has to look the way the music sounds.” Bowie has influenced countless other designers since then with his otherworldly style. Italian designers Ennio Capasa, Roberto Cavalli’s Peter Dundas, Donatella Versace have recently paid tribute to Bowie with their fashion shows just a week after his passing.

Photos have been collated by mirror.uk. ; In 2003 Kate Moss recreated the famous Duffy photograph of David Bowie with a lightning slashed cover.

In 2011 Kate Moss was convincingly transformed into David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust from the mullet hair to the outfit to her anchor tattoo (Bowie once sported a fake anchor tattoo) for the iconic cover.

Lady Gaga copied the lightning bolt concept on the face but also used Bowie’s SCARY MONSTERS album as inspiration for the artwork on her APPLAUSE single.

A day before Bowie’s passing she was reported to have credited him as an influence, “When I fell in love with David Bowie, when I was living on the Lower East Side, I always felt that his glamor was something he was using to express a message to people that was very healing for their souls. He is a true, true artist and I don’t know if I ever went, ‘Oh, I’m going to be that way like this,’ or if I arrived upon it slowly, realizing it was my calling and that’s what drew me to him.”

BBC History Magazine, in a poll of readers determined that David Bowie as the best-dressed Briton in history. Bowie won the title with 48.5 per cent of the votes. Designer Wayne Hemingway explained, “Here was a creative genius who understood art and design, looked cool, inspired us and upset the establishment. All these attributes lead to things that drive humankind forward… change”. Bowie beat out other nominees that included ‘Queen Elizabeth I; Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire; and original dandy Beau Brummell, a fashion icon who reputedly spent six hours a day getting ready. The trio received 13.6 per cent, 9.5 per cent and 8.4 per cent of the votes respectively.’

DAVID BOWIE IS EXHIBIT

In 2013 an exhibit entitled DAVID BOWIE IS was organized at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London- ‘the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design housing a permanent collection of 4.5million objects’ (Wikipedia). From the V&A site: ‘They include handwritten lyrics, original costumes, fashion, photography, film, music videos, set designs, Bowie’s own instruments and album artwork.

The exhibition explored the broad range of Bowie’s collaborations with artists and designers in the fields of fashion, sound, graphics, theatre, art and film. On display were more than 300 objects including Ziggy Stardust bodysuits (1972) designed by Freddie Burretti, photography by Brian Duffy; album sleeve artwork by Guy Peellaert and Edward Bell; visual excerpts from films and live performances including The Man Who Fell to Earth, music videos such as Boys Keep Swinging and set designs created for the Diamond Dogs tour (1974). Alongside these were more personal items such as never-before-seen storyboards, handwritten set lists and lyrics as well as some of Bowie’s own sketches, musical scores and diary entries, revealing the evolution of his creative ideas.’

Special screenings of the accompanying film DAVID BOWIE IS HAPPENING NOW are scheduled on January 17, 2016. The film combines a tour of the exhibition with the curators, archive footage and interviews with special guests including Kansai Yamamoto, Jarvis Cocker, Professor Sir Christopher Frayling and Jeremy Deller.

Tilda Swinton- her speech for the opening of the exhibit in 2013:

Dear Dave

When I asked you if you wanted me to say anything here tonight

You said ‘Only three words, one of them testicular..’

So I’ll pass that on

Here I am at surely the most eclectic of all the London branches of Bowie Anonymous
All the nicest possible freaks are here

We’re in the Victoria and Albert Museum preparing to rifle through your drawers
It’s truly an amazing thing

This was my favourite playground as a child
Medieval armour : my fantasy space wear

And, alongside, when I was 12 – and a square sort of kid in a Round Pond sort of childhood, not far from here – I carried a copy of Aladdin Sane around with me – a full 2 years before i had the wherewithal to play it

The image of that gingery boney pinky whitey person on the cover with the liquid mercury collar bone was – for one particular young moonage daydreamer – the image of planetary kin, of a close imaginary cousin and companion of choice

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 – but if i can’t confess that here and now, then when and where?

We all have our own roots
And routes
To this room

Some of us – the enviable – found the fellowship early in the funfests of

Billy’s Bowie Nights
or equivalent lodges from San Francisco to Auckland to Heidelberg

and all points in between

For others, it was a more lonesome affair, paced out in a sort of private morse code like following bread crumbs through a forest

I’m not saying that if you hadn’t pitched up I would have worn a pie crust collar and pearls like some of those I went to school with
I’m not saying that if you hadn’t weighed in, Princess Julia would have been less inventive with the pink blusher
Simply that, you provided the sideways like us with such rare and out-there company
Such fellowship
You pulled us in and left your arm dangling over our necks
And kept us warm – as you have for – isn’t it ? – centuries now

You were
You are
One of us

And you have remained the reliable mortal in amongst all the immortal shapes you have thrown

Nothing more certain than changes

Always with a weather eye out
Always awake and clocking the fallout

Those Mayans must have known something when they set their calendar down before January 2013

Because, of course, now all bets are off

I know, because you told me, how tickled you were to knock Elvis – for once! – out of the headlines on your shared birthday this year

There’s so much for all of us to be happy about since then

Yet, I think the thing I’m loving the most about the last few weeks
is how clear it now is – how undeniable – that the freak becomes the great unifier
The alien is the best company after all
For so many more than the few

They wanted a Bowie fan to speak tonight. They could have thrown a paper napkin and hit a hundred.
I’m the lucky one, standing up to speak for all my fellow freaks anxious to win

the pub quiz and
claim their number one most super-fan t-shirt

I want to give thanks to the Victoria and Albert Museum for indulging us so
For laying on our dream show

For showing us – look at their advance ticket sales – that , as is
written along the bottom of this months Q magazine,
‘why we all live in David’s world now’

To Gucci and Sennheiser for putting up the cash, laying on the sound and vision
To Geoffrey and Victoria for curating an entire universe so beautifully, on behalf of us all

When I think of what it used to feel like once
To be a freak who liked you
To feel like a freak like you
– a freak who even looked a little like you

And then I think of the countless people of every size and feather who are going to walk through this trace of your journey here and pick up the breadcrumbs
in the great hub of this mothership over these Spring and Summer months..

And how familiar and stamped you are into ALL of our our collective DNA

I’m just plain proud

So

Where are we now?

Well
I know you aren’t here tonight, but
Somehow, no matter

We are –
And you brought us out of the wainscotting like so many
Freaky old bastards
Like so many fan boys and girls
Like so many loners and pretty things and dandies and dudes and dukes and duckies and testicular types
And pulled us together

Together
By you
Dave Jones
Our not so absent, not so invisible, friend

Every alien’s favourite cousin
Certainly mine

We have a nice life

Yours aye

Tilly

With the recent passing of David Bowie last January 10, 2016, a look back at the achievements of a true artist and icon spanning six decades, in several art forms is a must. Read Part 1– Its Ok to be Different, Part 2 – Sexual Mystique, Part 3 –Rock Theater.

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With the recent passing of David Bowie last January 10, 2016, a look back at the achievements of a true artist and icon spanning six decades, in several art forms is a must. Read Part 1– Its Ok to be Different, Part 2 – Sexual Mystique, Part 3 –Rock Theater.

WordPress:

http://judebsports.wordpress.com/ , http://judebfood.wordpress.com/ , http://judebphoto.wordpress.com/ , https://judebgallery.wordpress.com/ , http://judebautista.wordpress.com/

fb fan page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Text-and-Photos-by-Jude-Bautista/146371575384135

January 18, 2016 | Categories: Art, Fashion, Film, Music, News, People, Theater, TV | Tags: acting, Alladin Sane, APPLAUSE, art, Ashes to ashes music video, BBC History Magazine, Beau Brummell, Best-dressed Briton in history, Broadway Debut, creative genius, creatively, culturally, David bowie, DAVID BOWIE IS EXHIBIT, David Mallet, design, designers, director, Donatella Versace, Duchess of Devonshire, ELLE, Elvis, Ennio Capasa, even Grunge, fashion, fashion icon, film, Freddie Buretti, Georgiana Cavendish, Heavy Metal, Italian designers, Japanese designer, Jareth the Goblin King, Jennifer Connelly, Jim Henson, Kansai Yamamoto, Kate Moss, Keith Richards, kimono, LABYRINTH, Lady Gaga, Lennon, MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. LAWRENCE, Michael Fish, music genres, Natasha Korniloff Pierrot, New Wave, Peter Dundas, Plastic Soul, politically, Punk, puppetry work, Queen Elizabeth I, Rock Theater, SCARY MONSTERS, surreal, THE ELEPHANT MAN, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, THE PRESTIGE, The Thin White Duke, Tilda Swinton, Victoria & Albert Museum, Wayne Hemingway, Ziggy Stardust, ZOOLANDER, ZOOLANDER2 | 9 Comments