Leigh Bowery, as Remembered by His Closest Friends and Collaborators
As Tate Modern’s long-overdue Leigh Bowery retrospective opens, his community remembers his relentless provocations and quicksilver mind, his electrifying looks and voracious appetites – and his genius for turning the act of going out into an art
TextHannah Lack
Lead ImageCHARLES ATLAS. Because We Must, &#; Charles Atlas Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York
This article is taken from the Winter/Spring issue of Another Man.
Bewitched by tales of fancy-dressed Blitz Kids, in Leigh Bowery packed up his sewing machine and quit the sleepy suburb of Sunshine, Australia for a bedsit in London. A day job flipping patties at Burger King funded the year-old’s nocturnal voyages into the capital’s clubs and cruising grounds, where he found a home among an eclectic cast of badly behaved accomplices at the likes of Cha Chas and The Pink Panther. By he was ringleader of Taboo, a hedonistic clubnight off Leicester Square that became legendary for its withering door policy, uninhibited dance floor and toilet-cubicle debauchery. A glittery antidote to Thatcher’s Britain, Taboo was the Th
Leigh Bowery: The Living Art of London’s Underground
London in the s was a time of rebellion, experimentation, and transformation, and Leigh Bowery stood at the very heart of it all. An artist, designer, nightclub promoter, and provocateur, Bowery didn’t just break the mould—he redefined it. His life and work were an exuberant spectacle of colour, controversy, and creativity, cementing his place as one of the most influential and enigmatic figures of his era. From his outrageous fashion to his legendary nightclub Taboo, Bowery’s legacy continues to inspire and astound.
From Sunshine to Stardom
Leigh Bowery was born in in Sunshine, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. For someone destined to shine so brightly, it’s fitting that even his birthplace carried a glimmer of prophecy. As a child, Bowery showed early signs of his creative leanings, dabbling in art and sewing, often to the bewilderment of his conservative surroundings.
In , Bowery left Australia for London, drawn by the city’s burgeoning music and fashion scene. It was a bold move for a young man from the suburbs, but London provided the perfect canvas for his boundless imagination. Arriving in the post-punk era,
If ‘80s London subcultures — punk, New Romantics, Goth, and the Blitz Kids — were placed in a blender, the outcome would look something like Leigh Bowery, the colorfully eccentric and provocative performance artist and club promoter who died 30 years ago.
He cofounded the club Taboo at Maximus in Leicester Square in and even though it only lasted 18 months, the spot drew an A-list crowd that included the likes of Boy George, George Michael, John Galliano and Lucian Freud dancing on its sticky floors.
More from WWD
Bowery’s party costumes and body of work across fashion, music and performance is being recognized in an exhibition at the Tate Modern that will open on Feb. The show looks at him through the lens of his fashion creations, art and a collection of photographs and videos taken by Nick Knight, Peter Doig, Fergus Greer and Baillie Walsh.
His towering 6-foot-1 inch build is also captured in a nude portrait by Freud.
Larger Than Life
The exhibition makes space for his larger-than-life ideas that have served as a source of inspiration for designers such as Lee Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Rick Owens and Rei Kawakubo, although none of their designs a
Leigh Bowery: Glitter, Shit, and the Performance of Decadence
Guest post: Dr Sofia Vranou (Queen Mary, University of London)
‘Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!’[1]
― Mae West
Taboo club, London. No amount of distress or discomfort limited Leigh Bowery’s artistic vision. By manipulating his appearance drastically with sculptural claustrophobic outfits, strange headpieces, layers of make-up, and dangerously high platform shoes that made him into a towering figure more than seven feet high, Bowery came to exemplify the subtle art of going out. He moved to London from his native Australia only a few years earlier, in , bringing with him a portable sewing machine in the hope of becoming a fashion designer, but being at odds with mainstream trends and normative ideals of beauty soon distanced him from his initial plans. The bizarre and extravagant outfits
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