CONFIDENTIAL

CONFIDENTIAL 

Insert Policy name approved (insert date) 

Page 1 of 63

CONTENTS 

Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 4 

David Bowie: A Brief Biography ............................................................................................. 5 

Responding to the Exhibition ................................................................................................. 8 

The Entrance ......................................................................................................................... 8 

Absolute Beginner: Early Life and Career .............................................................................. 9 

Influences: London, Home, Soho ........................................................................................... 9 

Space Oddity: Breakthrough ................................................................................................ 12 

Creative Processes .............................................................................................................. 15 

Astronauts of Inner Space ................................................................................................... 15 

Cultural Influences ............................................................................................................... 20 

Song Writing ........................................................................................................................ 24 

Recording ............................................................................................................................ 28 

Collaboration ....................................................................................................................... 32 

Characters ........................................................................................................................... 37 

Impact .................................................................................................................................. 41 

Sound and Vision ................................................................................................................. 46 

Music Videos ....................................................................................................................... 46 

Stage and Screen ................................................................................................................ 50 

Black and White Years ......................................................................................................... 52 

Performance: The Shows .................................................................................................... 55 

Influence .............................................................................................................................. 58 

David Bowie is Education Resource 

Page 2 of 63


Page 3 of 63 

Promotional photograph of David Bowie for 'Diamond Dogs,' 1974. 

Photograph by Terry O'Neill 

Image © Victoria and Albert Museum

DAVID BOWIE IS EDUCATION RESOURCE 

He is someone who has made life a little less ordinary for an awfully 

long time. 

Simon Critchley i 

Introduction 

David Bowie is renowned for his extraordinary combination of music, performance, 

fashion, art, language, culture and creative ideas. Celebrated for his capacity for 

reinvention and experimentation, he has become a cultural icon, synonymous with 

alternative possibilities, identities and experience. Drawing on Bowie’s life and career, 

David Bowie is presents and explores the ways that Bowie’s music and radical 

individualism have drawn on and influenced wider movements in art, design, film and 

contemporary popular culture. The exhibition also pays homage to the distinctive, 

multiple and ongoing connections formed between Bowie and his fans: “when people 

talk about Bowie they’re actually not talking about Bowie but about themselves”. ii 

Organised by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the exhibition includes 

objects, costumes, and creative artefacts drawn from The David Bowie Archive, the 

product of an entire lifetime. iii David Bowie is tells the story of Bowie’s career and 

explores his lasting and ongoing cultural impact by referencing the ideas, people, art 

and music that influenced him. This journey through Bowie’s creative life unfolds within 

an immersive soundscape that offers each visitor a personal audio experience. 

About this Resource 

This resource has been written to inspire a range of responses to the exhibition content 

and the art of David Bowie. Questions, prompts and creative challenges offer 

educational pathways to students from diverse disciplines (both secondary and tertiary) 

as well as offering lifelong learners an opportunity to think more deeply about the 

exhibition experience and its impact. 

Acknowledgements 

This resource has been produced by Dr Susan Bye, education programmer at the 

Australian Centre for the Moving Image, 2015. 


Page 4 of 63

David Bowie: A Brief Biography 

1960s 

Spanning nearly fifty years, David Bowie’s career has been marked by constant 

transformation. His interest in art and music can be traced back to his youth, as can his 

fascination with the public gaze and the nature of performance. As a teenager and 

young man in the sixties he experimented with different musical and performance 

styles, including exploring the expressive possibilities of mime under the guidance of 

dancer and mime artist Lindsay Kemp. 

Bowie’s first hint of commercial success came with the release of the now classic song 

‘Space Oddity’. Released in 1969, this song about alienation and loss formed a rather 

incongruous soundtrack to the BBC’s broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing. 

1970s 

Bowie next caught the attention of a mass audience in 1972 on Top of the Pops, when 

he performed ‘Starman’ with his band, The Spiders from Mars. iv This marked the debut 

prime time screen appearance of Ziggy Stardust, one of the personas with which Bowie 

will be forever associated, despite Bowie killing the character off the following year at 

the end of a hugely successful concert tour. 

The seventies are generally considered Bowie’s decade, a period during which he 

experimented relentlessly with music and performance styles and released eleven 

albums. Audiences learnt not to expect more of the same from Bowie, as he never 

covered old ground. For instance, immediately after creating the dramatic concept 

album Diamond Dogs, inspired by George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Bowie 

embraced soul in his ninth studio album, Young Americans. 

At the end of the seventies, Bowie worked with Brian Eno and longtime producer Tony 

Visconti to record the “Berlin Trilogy”; the trilogy’s first two albums – Low and “Heroes” 

– are celebrated for their avant-garde sophistication. 

He wowed Australian audiences with his first tour down-under in 1978. Fans camped 

out for a week to make sure they got the best tickets and then for three weeks prior to 

the concert to secure the best seats in the huge Melbourne Cricket Ground stadium. 

One of Bowie’s most loyal fans, Bruce Butler, describes these events in an interview on 

the ACMI Bowie channel.v 

1980s 

Bowie achieved greater popular recognition as he began releasing singles with broad 

appeal, often with an infectious dance beat. He also focused on exploring the 


Page 5 of 63

possibilities of music video which gave him the opportunity to extend his fascination 

with the creative connection between music and imagery. This decade was also a 

period of hugely successful concert performances including the Serious Moonlight tour 

(1983) and the extravagantly staged Glass Spider tour (1987). 

1990s 

In the nineties, Bowie turned away from the showy popularism of the previous decade. 

The work he did with Tin Machine, a group he formed in 1988, indicated a desire for a 

more immediate and less-produced musical style. This was also reflected in the 

adventurousness and experimentation of his stage performances during this period. 

Searing new arrangements of old hits, extended, deepening grooves 

that sucked you in like whirlpools then spat you into the middle of 

somewhere you thought you’d known but now weren’t sure. vi 

2000s 

Bowie has only performed in public on a few occasions since 2003 and has largely 

lived his life out of the public eye since 2007. In 2013 Bowie released his 24th studio 

album, The Next Day. This event was followed a few days later by the opening of the 

David Bowie is exhibition at the V&A. In 2015, fans are anticipating the premiere in 

New York of Lazarus, a musical written by Bowie and Irish playwright Enda Walsh 

based on Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth. vii 

Throughout his astonishingly productive musical and performance career, Bowie has 

explored multiple art forms, demonstrating a wide-ranging interest in art, literature, film, 

television, theatre, design, dance, cabaret, fashion and digital culture. He has also 

sought inspiration from other creative artists, drawing on alternative perspectives and 

styles to infuse his work with a continually evolving set of possibilities. In turn, Bowie’s 

influence is extensive, connecting people across the globe. He has inspired artists, 

fans and others, with Lady Gaga commenting that “every morning I wake up and I 

think, ’What would Bowie do?'”. viii 


Page 6 of 63


Page 7 of 63 

Striped bodysuit for the Aladdin Sane tour, 1973. Design by Kansai Yamamoto. 

Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita © Sukita / The David Bowie Archive

Responding to the Exhibition 

The Entrance 

All art in unstable. Its meaning is not necessarily that implied by the 

author. There is no authoritative voice. There are only multiple 

readings. 

David Bowie ix 

Visitors entering the exhibition are greeted by one of Bowie’s most astonishing 

costumes, designed by Kansai Yamamoto. Bowie wore Yamamoto’s creations during 

his Aladdin Sane tour, drawing on their kabuki-inspired strangeness to challenge and 

surprise audiences. Reflecting on their collaboration during this early but definitive 

stage of Bowie’s career, Yamamoto has described how their shared fascination with 

the theatricality and gender play of kabuki theatre contributed to the drama of Bowie’s 

performance: 

My designs have been influenced by kabuki theatre, as was [Bowie’s] 

show. There's a movement used in kabuki called hikinuki, where one 

costume is dramatically stripped off, revealing a different outfit 

underneath. At first Bowie was wearing all black, then suddenly he 

was in full colour. x 

Respond 

• What are your first impressions of the exhibition? 

• What is the visual impact of the “Tokyo Pop” bodysuit? 

As well as the stunning costume, our first view of the exhibition includes album notes 

from Bowie’s 1. Outside album, a CD case of Chess Pieces by John Cage and a video 

of performance artists Gilbert & George. 

• How do Chess Pieces and Gilbert & George’s pioneering performance artwork 

The Singing Sculpture prepare visitors for the rest of the exhibition and its 

exploration of Bowie’s work? 

• How does the quote from David Bowie (at the beginning of this section) relate to 

our role as visitors responding to the exhibition? 


Page 8 of 63

Absolute Beginner: Early Life and Career 

Influences: London, Home, Soho 

This part of the exhibition offers an introduction to David Bowie and the changing world 

and society in which he grew up. Born David Jones in 1947 in the aftermath of World 

War II, Bowie grew up at a time of great social change as Britain rebuilt itself. One of 

the themes of this section is the contrast between Bowie’s nondescript suburban 

upbringing and the transformations and experimentation taking place in art, theatre, 

music and technology. According to writer J. G. Ballard, the “blandness of London 

suburban existence during this period ‘force[d] the imagination into new areas’”. xi This 

postwar period in Britain is also associated with the rise of youth culture, characterised 

by the growing influence of American culture and the arrival of rock ’n’ roll. 

During this period, Bowie discovered Little Richard, a performer distinguished not only 

by his distinctive sound but also by his extraordinary showmanship. In choosing to go 

to Bromley Technical College, a secondary school specialising in the arts, Bowie 

signalled his commitment to a creative future. While there, Bowie’s interest in 

performance and music developed as he joined a series of bands. Even at this early 

stage of his musical career, Bowie was already developing ideas about the visual 

identity of these bands and considering the role of costume and stage design in 

performance. Bowie’s youthful fascination with performance identity is communicated 

in a 1966 publicity shot from his time in The Kon-rads, a shot that reveals the 16-yearold 

Bowie experimenting with costume, hair and image. The corduroy jacket on display 

in this area is one of Bowie’s earliest costumes, initially worn for performances with The 

Kon-rads and then customised with stripes drawn in blue ink for an appearance with 

the band The Riot Squad. 

In the years after he left school, Bowie was determined to achieve success as a 

performer. Between 1964 and 1969, he was in a succession of bands, recorded a 

number of singles and released a self-titled album (1967). Key events during this 

period were the recording of Liza Jane (Davie Jones and the King Bees, 1964), being 

introduced to the sound of the Velvet Underground (1966), meeting mime artist Lindsay 

Kemp (1968) and releasing his breakthrough single ‘Space Oddity’ (1969). What 

stands out in this survey of Bowie’s early career is his perseverance and determination. 

Dek Fearnley, Bowie’s collaborator on the 1967 David Bowie album, describes how he 

and Bowie taught themselves musical notation from a book, so they could produce 

scores for their arrangements. 

At this time, Bowie was yet to develop the avant-garde performance persona that 

became his hallmark. Nevertheless, this was an important formative period for him, as 

he absorbed the diverse range of musical and creative ideas circulating in London. The 

representation of his initially unsuccessful creative career provides an insight into the 

determination and hard work underpinning Bowie’s development. 


Page 9 of 63


Page 10 of 63 

Publicity photograph for The Kon-rads, 1966. Photograph by Roy Ainsworth. 

Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive. Image © Victoria and Albert Museum

Respond 

• This area of the exhibition focuses on David Bowie’s formative years and 

contains an eclectic range of artefacts. Choose two or three objects or images 

and explain what each is communicating about Bowie’s evolution as an artist. 

• What do you consider to be the most significant influences on Bowie’s 

development as a performer and artist? 

The 1950s are generally identified with conservatism and a resistance to change and 

experimentation but this decade also set the scene for the immense social changes 

that took place during the 1960s and beyond. 

• How are these alternative perspectives communicated in this area of the 

exhibition? 

• Artists are not only inspired by change but can be motivated by their resistance to 

or rejection of the norms. How would you describe Bowie’s inspiration during this 

early period? 

Consider the design decisions made in this area of the exhibition. 

• What are some of the ways visitors are introduced to Bowie, his early life and his 

early influences? 

• How does the soundscape add to this process? 

• How does projected and screened material create mood and meaning? 

After Your Visit 

Bowie and Britain 

• Find out more about the postwar period in London and Britain. 

‒ What were the challenges faced by the community? 

‒ What were some of the social innovations that transformed this society in the 

1950s and 1960s? 

‒ How did British music and fashion signal the arrival of a new era? 

‒ In what ways is David Bowie a product of the society in which he grew up? 

Consider opportunities, obstacles and influences in your answer. 


Page 11 of 63

Bowie’s Early Works 

Although Bowie was fascinated by the innovative ethos of this period, many of his 

earliest recordings, such as ‘The Laughing Gnome’, owed a great deal to the British 

music hall tradition. Other songs, such as ‘The London Boys’, defy classification. 

• 

Listen to some of Bowie’s early songs and try to identify musical influences as 

well as elements that appear in Bowie’s subsequent work. xii 

Create 

In presenting Bowie’s developing interests and creative influences as he was growing 

up in suburban Bromley, the curators have used props and projection to imaginatively 

represent the rooms of a house. Using this idea as a prompt, focus on an aspect of 

Bowie’s creative career that interests you and design an appropriately themed 

exhibition section. 

‒ What is the theme of your section? 

‒ What objects and screening material will you include? 

‒ How will you design the space to reflect the theme – be ambitious. Consider 

using: music, sound effects, projection, augmented reality, apps, interactives 

and social media. 

‒ How will you communicate additional information – printed labels, QR codes, 

audio tour, screens? 

Space Oddity: Breakthrough 

The single ‘Space Oddity’ was Bowie’s first commercial breakthrough. It was chosen as 

a backing track to the BBC’s television broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing and, 

as a consequence, made it to No. 5 in the UK record charts. Many commentators have 

spoken of the irony of a song about an astronaut stranded in space being used in the 

context of this broadcast. Partly inspired by the acute sense of isolation in Stanley 

Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), ‘Space Oddity’ retains its eerie 

sense of loss and loneliness. The despair and disconnection associated with Major 

Tom, the character featured in the song, prepares the way for Bowie’s ongoing 

exploration of alienation and psychological fragmentation. According to Peter Doggett, 

the bleakness of ‘Space Oddity’ anticipated the pessimistic mood of the seventies: 

Bowie “anticipated the realization that western society could not fuel and satisfy the 

optimism of sixties youth culture”. xiii 


Page 12 of 63

Respond 

During this period, album covers offered listeners a first impression that would either 

compel them to listen to the album itself or move on to something else. 

• What is the first impression offered by the front cover of the David Bowie 

album? xiv 

Bowie has always been intimately involved in the development of his albums’ artwork. 

His concept sketch for Space Oddity inspired George Underwood’s artwork for the 

back cover. 

• How would you describe the original concept and the final design? 

• Compare the back cover artwork with the front cover. 

• Why do you think such different styles have been chosen for each side? 


‘Space Oddity’ 

Watched on television by audiences all around the world, the 1969 Apollo 11 moon 

landing was celebrated for its extraordinary human achievement. 

• Find out more about the moon landing and its significance. 

• Listen to the lyrics of ‘Space Oddity’ and explain how the subject matter and 

imagery combine to undermine the visionary optimism accompanying the Apollo 

11 mission. 

Earthrise 

Earthrise (William Anders, 24 December 1968), which fills the background of this 

section, is one of the most influential photographs ever published. xv Its depiction of the 

earth as a beautiful but fragile totality is credited with highlighting the interconnection 

between all living things and launching the environmental movement. In the lyrics of 

‘Space Oddity’, Major Tom is given the same view of the earth as the one 

photographed by astronaut William Anders. However, rather than feeling connected to 

the rest of humanity, Tom feels very much alone. 

• What is the view of humanity and human existence offered in ‘Space Oddity’? 

• In considering how ‘Space Oddity’ responds to the ethos of the time, you might 

like to read Archibald McLeish’s reflection on Earthrise, “A Reflection: Riders on the 

Earth Together, Brothers in Eternal Cold” (appearing in The New York Times on 25 


Page 13 of 63

December, 1968, 

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/opinion/20081224earth1.pdf). 

Chris Hadfield’s ‘Space Oddity’ 

Chris Hadfield’s version of ‘Space Oddity’ recorded at the International Space Station 

has become a YouTube sensation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apemYk2oz7M 

• Watch this clip. What changes has Hadfield made to the lyrics? How has he 

changed the meaning of the song? 

• Create an extra layer of meaning/emotion/connection by matching up other 

Bowie songs with surprising places and people. Use your imagination and share 

your ideas with others. Visit ACMI’s Bowie Channel to see and hear Melbourne’s 

busking community performing ‘Starman’: https://www.acmi.net.au/bowiechannel/ 

and performer Geraldine Quinn reliving Mick Rock’s ‘Life on Mars’ 

music video. 

• Create your own homage to Bowie. 

Geraldine Quinn. Photographer Mark Gambino 


Page 14 of 63

Creative Processes 

Astronauts of Inner Space 

Bowie struggled to repeat the success of ‘Space Oddity’, with a succession of singles 

including ‘Memory of a Free Festival’ and ‘Moonage Daydream’. However, this all 

changed with Bowie’s performance of ‘Starman’ on the BBC’s Top of the Pops in 

1972. 

Watched by about 15 million people, Bowie’s performance with his band The Spiders 

from Mars captured the attention and imaginations of the viewing audience. The 

unveiling on television of Bowie’s carefully crafted Ziggy Stardust alter ego has 

become one of the legendary moments of pop music performance. 

Up until the single Starman, from the album Ziggy Stardust, or more accurately, 

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and that 

legendary appearance on Top of the Pops, David Bowie was just that pale 

bloke who’d had a novelty hit called Space Oddity about the moon landings of 

1969. 

But Major Tom was an earthman venturing into space. Starman reversed the 

story. 

Here was an alien who was coming to Earth to change us. A strange, sexy, 

ambiguous presence who was going to release us from the drab and the 

everyday, a bit like Bowie himself . xvi 

The Ziggy Stardust persona had been developed over a period time and the members 

of Bowie’s band The Spiders from Mars were gradually persuaded to engage with the 

process. Yet, in this iconic performance the group came together as a unified whole, 

most memorably when Bowie put his arm languidly around the shoulder of guitarist 

Mick Ronson. 

Paul Trynka, one of Bowie’s many biographers, describes this TV appearance as “a 

spectacle of not belonging”, a performance that spoke to all of the outsiders in the 

audience in a way that many have never forgotten. xvii Audiences and fans relate to 

Bowie with such passionate enthusiasm because he offers them not only a different 

way of looking at the world but of looking at and imagining themselves and their lives. 

So much has been said about Ziggy Stardust’s look, particularly in terms of his first TV 

appearance, that we sometimes forget the importance of what we hear. Australian 

musician Robert Forster’s memory of first listening to ‘Starman’ is just as dramatic as 

the recollections of the British people who remember Bowie’s appearance on Top of 

the Pops: "It was almost like the beginning of music for me." xviii 


Page 15 of 63

Quilted two-piece suit, 1972. Designed by Freddie Burretti for the Ziggy Stardust tour. 

Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive. Image © Victoria and Albert Museum 


Page 16 of 63

Respond 

As you watch the performance of ‘Starman’ and see the extraordinary costume 

(designed by Freddie Burretti) and red boots that Bowie wore for it, use your 

imagination to place yourself in the shoes of the young viewers of the time. 

• What stands out for you in this performance? Think about costume, hair, makeup, 

camera, use of the stage, the composition and interaction of the band 

members. 

• Why do you think it made such an impact on viewers at the time? 

• Taking on board the impact of this television ‘moment’, can you describe a similar 

experience that you have had – perhaps watching a music video on YouTube or 

in any other context? 

Paul Trynka has described this performance as “a spectacle of not belonging”. 

• What aspects of the performance is he referring to in this description? 

• Why do you think this particular TV moment has become such an important part 

of the Bowie mystique? 

Bowie described the ‘Starman’ costume as “ultra-violence in Liberty fabrics”. 

• How does this contradiction (or oxymoron) pick up on Bowie’s creative practice 

as a whole? 

• What other ideas, styles and associations are evoked by the ‘Starman’ costume? 

While our experience of Ziggy singing ‘Starman’ is different from the one described by 

so many British fans in the 1970s, this is undoubtedly a particularly exciting moment in 

the exhibition. 

• What is your initial response to the visual display? 

• What techniques have the curators used to create visual excitement? 

• How does the audio add to this experience? 

• Television has played a fundamental role in Bowie’s career and in connecting him 

with his fans. As you continue through David Bowie is take note of the 

significance of the screen in his career: both on TV and film, and now, of course, 

on YouTube. 


Page 17 of 63


Top of the Pops 

‘Starman’ is undoubtedly the most conventional ‘pop’ song on The Rise and Fall of 

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album. 

• Watch the 1972 Top of the Pops performance of ‘Starman’ on YouTube and 

compare it with other Ziggy performances and songs. 

• Why do you think ‘Starman’ was chosen as the first single to be released from 

this album? 

Until the Top of the Pops appearance, ‘Starman’ had languished at the bottom of the 

singles chart, despite the growing success of Bowie and his live performances as part 

of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Ziggy Stardust was a product that 

required marketing and Top of the Pops gave Bowie the chance to sell the concept to 

an audience of 15 million people. 

• Describe what Bowie was selling the Top of the Pops audience. 

‒ How did Bowie sell it and to whom? 

‒ How has the meaning of this performance endured over time and how has it 

changed? Explain. To answer this question, you will need to look online for fan 

recollections of this powerful moment. 

• Analyse how ‘Starman’ and the performance on Top of the Pops provide a bridge 

between the wider audience and the cult performance persona of Ziggy Stardust. 

Consider all elements including music, lyrics, costume, make-up, hair, camera 

and group composition and interaction. 

Sexuality and Gender 

Of Bowie’s performance, musician Siouxsie Sioux has commented: “That ambiguous 

sexuality was so bold and futuristic that it made the traditional male/female role-play 

thing seem so outdated!” xix 

• What does Siouxsie Sioux mean by the “traditional male/female role-play thing”? 

• How did the character of Ziggy make the opposition between male and female 

seem outdated? 

• Why did so many people find Bowie’s deconstruction of the gender 

dichotomy/binary/opposition so liberating? 


Page 18 of 63

The Droogs 

According to Bowie, in constructing Ziggy Stardust, he “packaged a totally credible, 

plastic rock ‘n’ roll singer”. xx In creating this character, Bowie drew on a range of 

influences, including Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film of A Clockwork Orange, and used the 

boiler-suited droogs as inspiration for Ziggy’s early costumes. 

• Compare the droogs’ appearance in the movie with Bowie’s interpretation. (You 

can find plenty of images from Kubrick’s film online.) 

• What film and television characters have made a strong visual impression on 

you? Try to account for why and how they have made this impact on you. How 

might you incorporate this powerful visual impression into your own creative 

practice – writing, visual art, design, music, performance? Brainstorm some ideas 

and see what you come up with. 

Andy Warhol 

Bowie was always fascinated by Andy Warhol and, inspired by Warhol’s blurring of art 

and life, even wrote a song about him (‘Andy Warhol’). Both men spent time working in 

advertising and both were fascinated by the idea of inauthenticity and appropriation. 

• Listen to Bowie’s song ‘Andy Warhol’ and explain how both music and lyrics 

engage with the spirit of Warhol. 

• Find out more about pop art and consider its relationship to Bowie’s own creative 

practice. 

• How do both Bowie and Warhol’s manipulation of their public identities 

demonstrate their understanding of media and advertising? 

Bowie has been described as a “conceptual artist” and the character of Ziggy Stardust 

could be considered one of his most successful artworks. xxi Ziggy gave Bowie a chance 

to express and draw together a range of creative ideas. 

• Using Ziggy as inspiration, draw on all the things that influence and inspire you 

(ideas, games, TV, film, music, art, literature, fashion, popular culture, sport) and 

design a piece of conceptual art. 

Influence 

Bowie’s linking of theatrical performance and staging with rock/pop music was hugely 

influential. In Australia and New Zealand, a number of bands, particularly Skyhooks 

and Split Enz, drew on this innovative theatricality to create their own distinctive styles. 


Page 19 of 63

• Find out more about these and other Australian bands inspired by Bowie in the 

1970s. 

Bowie’s androgynous, performative theatricality continues to offer artists and fans a 

way to express themselves. 

• Explore Bowie’s influence by visiting fan sites and reading the many articles and 

testimonials generated in response to the David Bowie is exhibition as it made its 

way around the world. 

• Design or create your own Bowie-inspired film, music video, song lyrics, artwork, 

performance art piece, costume or makeup. 

Cultural Influences 

Bowie’s openness to influences from multiple sources is a distinctive feature of his 

creative practice. Often described as a magpie, Bowie has always collected and 

sampled ideas, beliefs, artistic practices, styles and cultural trends. Bowie’s genius is 

his ability to make something new and compelling out of the influences he draws on in 

his work, a practice he once described as “effective plagiarism”: 

I do think that my plagiarism is effective. Why does an artist create, 

anyway? The way I see it, if you’re an inventor, you invent something 

that you hope people can use. I want art to be just as practical. Art 

can be a political reference, a sexual force, any force that you want, 

but it should be usable. xxii 

Bowie’s practice of reinvention is a continuing process. Once he forges a new musical 

identity or performance persona out of the influences inspiring him at a particular point 

in his artistic career, he is quick to explore ideas that will take him beyond what he has 

already created. This eclectic process of experimentation gives Bowie’s work an 

unexpected and unpredictable quality. His musical choices challenge fans to remake 

their tastes for each new album, as his sound and image are reinvented. 

In this area of the exhibition, Bowie’s openness to new and challenging ideas and the 

work of other artists is communicated through a projected collage, books suspended 

from the ceiling and an eclectic mix of objects and photographs and artworks. The 

effect is kaleidoscopic and exuberant. 


Page 20 of 63

Stage set model for the Diamond Dogs tour 1974. Designed by Jules Fisher and Mark Ravitz 


Respond 

A key element of this section of the exhibition is the collage/montage of people who 

have influenced Bowie. 

• Are there common features that any of these influential figures share? 

• Are there any unexpected inclusions? 

• Of the 45 names listed, 39 are male, one is a fantasy character and five are 

female. Does this surprise you? Why? Why not? 

In creating the concept that became the album Diamond Dogs, Bowie drew on 

Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell’s vision of a dystopian society in which a class of 

dispossessed people are controlled by the State. Initially, Bowie wanted to create a 

musical based on the book but failed to attain the rights. Subsequently, he expanded 

his frame of reference to Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis (1927), and developed the idea of 


Page 21 of 63

Hunger City based on Lang’s futuristic dystopia. Bowie created sets and storyboards 

for a film based on this idea but it never eventuated. 

• Explore the display of creative designs that emerged during this period and 

describe: 

‒ Hunger City. 

‒ the multiple creative ideas drawn from the original sources of inspiration. 

‒ what these designs reveal about Bowie and his creative interests. 

• Refer to the poster of Metropolis displayed in the exhibition and identify the 

design elements Bowie used to design the sets for the Diamond Dogs tour. 

In Bowie’s extraordinary performance in 1979 with Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias on 

Saturday Night Live, he drew on the tradition of Dada’s rejection of meaning and 

convention. 

• What is the visual impact of the costume on display in this section? 

• Watch the clip of the performance and describe the role played by costume and 

dance. (If you want to watch the entire – fabulous – Saturday Night Live 

appearance after visiting the exhibition, you can find it here: 

http://www.openculture.com/2014/09/david-bowie-and-klaus-nomis-hypnoticperformance-on-snl-1979.html) 

• How would you describe and interpret this performance? 

• How does this performance link up with the challenge to convention posed by 

Ziggy Stardust? How is it different? 

• Refer to Sonia Delaunay’s designs for Tristan Tzara’s The Gas Heart and explain 

how Bowie used this early performance as inspiration. xxiii 


Literary Inspiration 

Bowie is a voracious reader and has drawn inspiration from a number of literary 

sources including George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and the work of William S. 

Burroughs, Aleister Crowley and Friedrich Nietzsche. You can see a 2013 list of David 

Bowie’s favourite books here: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/01/davidbowie-books-kerouac-milligan 


Page 22 of 63

• Focus on a book on the list with which you are familiar and consider how it fits 

with your understanding of Bowie’s creative practice and perspective. 

• Are there any works on the list that surprise you? 

• Make a list of the books, films, songs, artworks and other works that inspire you 

and that you admire. 

Nineteen Eighty-Four 

Bowie’s ideas for the Nineteen Eighty-Four musical contributed elements to the 

Diamond Dogs album, most obviously in song titles such as ‘Big Brother’ and ‘1984’. 

Other songs connected to the original Orwell-inspired musical are ‘Sweet 

Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing’, ‘We are the Dead’ and ‘Chant of the Ever-Circling 

Skeletal Family’. 

• Explore and analyse the (complex and elusive) lyrics of one of these songs and 

identify the Orwellian connections. 

Surrealism 

Bowie was inspired by the Surrealists and their exploration of the imagery associated 

with dreams. Luis Buñuel’s Surrealist film Un Chien Andalou (1929) was screened 

during Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane concerts and as a prelude to the Station to 

Station shows. 

• Watch this extraordinary short film online. 

• What are some of the ways the film’s aesthetic links with Bowie’s long-term 

exploration of fractured narrative techniques and striking visual imagery? 

Berlin 

As well as incorporating many theatrical performance modes into his stage act (music 

hall, cabaret, musical comedy, mime, circus, burlesque, rock ‘n’ roll, glam rock), Bowie 

has proved himself a talented actor on stage, in films and on television. His 

performance in a BBC production of Bertolt Brecht’s Baal was screened on English 

television in 1982. The producer, Louis Marks, described the production as “ambitious 

– bordering on the dangerous”. xxiv 

• How can a TV performance of a play be “dangerous”? What do you think Marks 

meant with this comment? 

• You can watch this performance online and listen to Bowie’s recording of the five 

songs written for the play. 


Page 23 of 63

The role of Baal links up with Bowie’s fascination with the Weimar period in Berlin. 

• Find out more about this period, including the role of cabaret, art (particularly the 

Expressionist and Neue Sachlichkeit movements) and the theatre of Brecht. 

In what other works by Bowie can you see the influence of Weimar culture? 

Baal is a bohemian poet and singer who is a transgressive outsider figure. 

• How did Bowie’s performance in Baal link up with his existing performance 

persona? 

Create 

Bowie draws on creative ideas and influences to generate a multi-faceted body of work. 

• Drawing inspiration from Bowie’s creative practice, apply a set of creative ideas 

to a range of different outcomes. 

‒ Begin by listing and sharing as many of your influences and inspirations as 

you can think of. Draw on creative work and ideas that you love, find 

interesting or are challenged by. 

‒ Connect the strongest ideas into a storyline, concept or theme. 

‒ Explore this set of creative ideas in ways that interest you: collage, writing, art, 

music, performance, marketing, and/or set, costume, prop or product design. 

• Share your designs/creations/artworks with others in your group and work 

together to combine ideas and draw further inspiration from each other. 

Song Writing 

…it’s the realization, to me at least, that I’m most comfortable with a 

sense of fragmentation ... The idea of tidy endings or beginnings 

seems too absolute. It’s not at all like real life. 

David Bowie xxv 

Bowie’s talent as a songwriter is a fundamental part of his success and the esteem in 

which he is held. He began writing songs from the beginning of his musical career and 

has continually strived to incorporate new ideas and influences into his work. There are 

few performers who have produced such a diverse array of songs, and who have 

consistently remade their sound so dramatically. 


Page 24 of 63

While Bowie’s prodigious creative talent is integral to his image, it is interesting that he 

has attributed his songwriting brilliance to hard work: “I forced myself to become a good 

songwriter and I became a good songwriter. I made a job of getting good.” xxvi Bowie’s 

capacity to apply himself to a project and build the necessary knowledge means that he 

has always had the confidence to continually change tack and try something quite 

different: “being made, not born, also offered boundless opportunities. Having built up a 

technique from scratch once, he could do it again.” xxvii 

Along with Bowie’s ambitious experimentation in music styles, Bowie’s lyrics are 

characterised by unexpected images and juxtaposed ideas. In writing his songs, he 

engages with serious themes and concepts but typically expresses them in evocative 

yet elusive language. As he established his songwriting credentials in the seventies, he 

grew increasingly fascinated by the creative practice of cut-ups, a technique that was 

pioneered by Dadaist and Surrealist artists in the twenties and further explored in the 

fifties by artist Brion Gysin and writer William S. Burroughs. 

In the documentary Cracked Actor (Yentob, 1974), Bowie demonstrates this method of 

taking a block of text and cutting it up into individual words and then randomly reorganising 

them. He explains that this method is part of a creative process designed to 

“ignit[e] anything that might be in [his] imagination”. xxviii When creating his album 1. 

Outside in 1995, he and collaborator Brian Eno employed a range of techniques, 

including feeding words into a computer program called the Verbasizer which then 

randomises and reassembles them. 

Respond 

You can view some of Bowie’s handwritten lyrics in this section. Bowie has created 

some unforgettable imagery in his songwriting; he has said that he likes the idea that 

his songs are “vehicles for other people to interpret or use as they will”. xxix 

• Choose a set of lyrics and identify the most powerful word combinations, images 

or ideas. 

• According to William S. Burroughs, the cut-up writing technique enables “the 

writer to turn images into cinematic variations”. xxx What elements of the song 

lyrics you have chosen could be considered “cinematic”? 

• What do these lyrics mean to you? 

• What emotions, ideas and memories do they evoke? 

You can see the cut-up lyrics used to write the song ‘Blackout’ for the “Heroes” album. 

For Bowie, the main purpose of this technique was to free him from the limitations 

imposed by conscious thought. 

• What do you think about this technique? 


Page 25 of 63

• In what ways do our familiar thought processes impede our creativity? 

• What other techniques do artists use to inspire their imaginations? 

Consider this comment: “Bowie almost single-handedly created the category of “art 

rock” with his application of avant-garde techniques to conventional song structures 

and rock ‘n’ roll attitudes.” xxxi 

• Choose any song featured in the exhibition – or any Bowie song you know – and 

explain whether or not this description applies to that song. Explain your answer, 

identifying specific musical and lyrical features. 

Cut up lyrics for 'Blackout' from "Heroes", 1977. 



Page 26 of 63


The Songs 

• Read this article: “DAVID BOWIE: I went to buy some shoes - and I came back 

with Life On Mars”, Daily Mail, 29 June 2008, 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1030121/DAVID-BOWIE-I-went-buyshoes--I-came-Life-On-Mars.html#ixzz3dSnHV8jU 

• Listen to a range of Bowie’s songs and read his lyrics. 

‒ Which song lyrics create the most powerful and challenging images in your 

mind and imagination? 

‒ Do these images have anything in common? 

‒ Do they rely on particular kind of writing or way of representing experience? 

‒ Peter Doggett has described the lyrics of the songs on Diamond Dogs as “an 

accidental collision of images”. xxxii What does this mean? Explain with 

reference to lyrics from the album. 

‒ If you were going to choose an image from one of Bowie’s songs to use on a 

record cover or a poster, which would you use and how would you interpret it? 

Cut-ups 

Some of the earliest experimentation with cut-ups was associated with Dada, an art 

movement that attempted to break down rational meaning. In 1920, Tristan Tzara, a 

significant figure in the development of Dadaism, provided the recipe for writing Dadaist 

poetry: 

To Make a Dadaist Poem 

Take a newspaper. 

Take some scissors. 

Choose from this paper an article the length you want to make your poem. 

Cut out the article. 

Next carefully cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them all in a 

bag. 

Shake gently. 

Next take out each cutting one after the other. 

Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag. 

The poem will resemble you. 

And there you are—an infinitely original author of charming sensibility, even though 

unappreciated by the vulgar herd. xxxiii 


Page 27 of 63

• Experiment with this technique and see what you can come up with. 

• Bowie didn’t use this technique as an end in itself but to ‘ignite’ his imagination. 

Are there elements of you work that particularly capture your imagination – 

unexpected images, strange associations, evocative phrases? 

• You can also try doing digital cut-ups: 

www.languageisavirus.com/cutupmachine.html#.VX5vGvmqpBc 

Oblique Strategies 

When recording with Bowie in Berlin, Brian Eno produced a set of “oblique strategies” 

cards containing ideas to break creative blocks. You can access these prompts online: 

http://oblicard.com/ 

• Try using them to stimulate your creative processes. 

• Why do you think these cards were such a successful stimulus to the recording 

process? 

• Design your own oblique strategies and share them as a group. Pick up your 

group’s cards at random as a stimulus for creative work and collaboration. (One 

of the oblique strategies used by Bowie and his team was to swap instruments 

when recording ‘Boys Keep Swinging’.) xxxiv 

Recording 

Bowie has recorded extensively, releasing twenty-seven studio albums in the course of 

his career (along with more than 150 live albums). He is renowned for working 

productively in the studio, laying down his vocals with effortless precision and skillfully 

utilising the talents of those he has assembled around him. His determination to 

achieve the right sounds by communicating and collaborating effectively with other 

musicians in the studio is longstanding. 

Bowie is also remarkable for combining his prolific output with a refusal to cover old 

ground. Each new album is a distinctive work, requiring his fans and the record-buying 

public to readjust their expectations and open themselves up to something fresh and 

different. Producer Ken Scott, who worked with Bowie on a number of his early albums, 

identified the secret to the magic that Bowie and his fellow musicians weaved in the 

recording studio: “We were making records for ourselves, and if other people happened 

to like them then that was great.” xxxv 

Throughout his recording career, Bowie has avoided the obvious, commenting that he 

“often pulls [himself] back if [he] feels something is becoming too melodic”: “Some 


Page 28 of 63

people call me pretentious for working like this, but I don’t think there is anything wrong 

with thinking of pop as an art form, you’ve just got to think of it without a capital A.” xxxvi 

The recording of ‘Under Pressure’ (1982), with Freddie Mercury and Queen, offers an 

example of Bowie using a range of strategies to give his music freshness and 

spontaneity. After recording a backing track, Bowie suggested that he and Mercury 

each record an improvised melody to see what they came up with. 

Queen’s Brian May recollects: 

Some of these improvisations, including Mercury’s memorable 

introductory scatting vocal, would endure on the finished track. Bowie 

also insisted that he and Mercury shouldn’t hear what the other had 

sung, swapping verses blind, which helped give the song its cut-andpaste 

feel. xxxvii 

While Bowie has worked with a number of influential producers during his career, 

including Ken Scott, Brian Eno and Nile Rodgers, Tony Visconti stands out for the 

contribution he has made to Bowie’s records. He first worked with Bowie in 1969 on the 

David Bowie/Space Oddity albums and describes The Man Who Sold the World (1970) 

as the groundbreaking prelude to the rest of Bowie’s recording career. xxxviii The list of 

recordings the pair has worked on is long and includes Young Americans (1975), Low 

(1977), “Heroes” (1977), Heathen (2002) and Bowie’s most recent album, The Next 

Day (2013), which was released after a break of some years. 

Respond 

• How does the simulated recording studio environment add to your experience of 

the exhibition and this introduction to Bowie’s recording process? 

• What aspects of the design stand out for you? 

• How does this section of the exhibition work in relation to the rest of the space? 

• How does the sound-absorbing foam insulation add to the experience and 

atmosphere of this section? 

In the recording studio, you can see a selection of documents relating to the 

practicalities of studio work. 

• What are some of the details that capture your attention or provide greater insight 

into the recording process? 

In a series of interview excerpts, Bowie reflects on the making of albums from 1. 

Outside onwards. 


Page 29 of 63

• What aspects of the creative process stand out in these discussions? 

• How distinctive is the recording process for each album? 

• How important are the other people involved? 


The Albums 

In the same way that Bowie’s albums are all very different, so are the methods used to 

make them. 

• Working with others, assign each person in the group one of Bowie’s albums and 

give them the task of finding out more about the approach used when recording 

it. Share what you have each discovered about your assigned album and choose 

a song that best represents the style of the record. 

1.Outside 

1.Outside (1995) is a highly experimental album based on a loose narrative and crafted 

with the help of the Verbasizer program. 

• Find out more about the way the album was crafted and the role of improvisation. 

(You could begin with this incisive review by Rick Moody: 

https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/27/reviews/moody-bowie.html)xxxix 

• How does the complex weaving together of character and narrative in this album 

draw on and extend Bowie’s longstanding creative interest in character and 

performance? 

1.Outside also saw the reconnection of Bowie and Brian Eno. In a reprise of the 

oblique strategy cards used in Berlin, Eno gave each musician a character and roleplay 

card at the beginning of each day in the recording studio: For instance: “You’re on 

the third moon of Jupiter and you are the house band.” xl 

• What do you think this technique might have added to the recording process? 

For Bowie, one of the strengths of this strategy was that it discouraged cliché. 

• Why do you think it did this? 

• What is a musical cliché? 

• Why must an artist avoid clichés at all cost? 


Page 30 of 63

• From what you know about Bowie, why would he be particularly determined to 

avoid clichés? 

Sound and Music 

The interrelationship between sound and music are integral to the understanding of 

Bowie’s work and his attitude to the recording process. In one example (‘Sweet 

Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing’) Peter Doggett describes Bowie as “painting with the 

colours of music”. He elaborates: 

You could replace Bowie’s English words with any other language, 

and lose none of the effect, even the voice was merely a constituent 

part of the canvas, no more or less important than any other. xli 

• Listen to this song – and others – and identify what Doggett is describing. 

• How would you describe the interconnection between musical and lyrical 

elements in Bowie’s work? 

• How do Bowie’s instrumental (or mostly instrumental) works fit into his work as a 

whole? Are they essentially different, or are they also musical paintings? 

Create 

• In a group, compose your own role-play cards. Share them and, depending on 

your shared interests, apply them to a group task or a set of individual creative 

tasks based on a shared theme or concept – which could also be constructed 

using cards, cut outs or another randomising strategy. (This is a great creative 

stimulus in a variety of classroom contexts: music composition and/or 

performance, art, design, media, writing, drama and theatre). 


Page 31 of 63

David Bowie with William Burroughs, February 1974. Photograph by Terry O'Neill with colour by David Bowie. 


Collaboration 

Bowie is involved in all facets of his creative output; the intensity of his songwriting and 

recording process is matched by his focus on details of his stage performance and 

persona, production design, album cover art and his groundbreaking music videos. The 

extraordinary creative control that Bowie exercises over all aspects of his work extends 

to his choice of collaborators. To help him express himself and his artistic statement, 

Bowie has consistently sought out talented people to work with. This search has little to 

do with his collaborators’ public profiles but more to do with Bowie’s astute capacity to 

connect the sensibility or style of a particular musician or artist to a creative project. 

Along with relationships established with producers in the recording studio, Bowie has 

worked with many highly respected musicians, always matching their individual sound, 

style and musical strengths to a particular project. As he reinvigorates his creative 

practice, he gains inspiration by collaborating with someone new. 

In constructing each new persona or character Bowie has drawn on the talents of many 

people. Ziggy Stardust was launched with the help of nineteen-year-old fashion 

designer Freddie Burretti while a Kansai Yamamoto model inspired Ziggy’s hairstyle. 

Yamamoto’s avant-garde designs contributed to the Aladdin Sane character, while 


Page 32 of 63

makeup artist Pierre La Roche designed the iconic lightning bolt makeup on the 

Aladdin Sane record cover. xlii Designer Natasha Korniloff first worked with Bowie in 

1970, when she designed the costumes for Pierrot in Turquoise, a musical written by 

Bowie’s friend and mime artist Lindsay Kemp. When Bowie revisited the Pierrot 

character for the cover art of Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) and the 

‘Ashes to Ashes’ video, Korniloff created an extravagant blue silk costume, drawing on 

the idea of Pierrot as the artist’s alter-ego. 

Bowie’s belief in the importance of album art has been a distinctive part of the way that 

he has branded each new piece of music. His album cover designs has become an 

integral part of his representation of himself and his music, and his connection with his 

audience. Each cover is striking and thought-provoking, but, arguably, the most 

memorable is the one for Diamond Dogs created by artist Guy Peellaert. The painting 

of Bowie as half man/half dog highlights Bowie as a performer who breaks down 

boundaries and categories. Immediately following the album’s release, the record 

company (RCA Records) withdrew it to airbrush out the creature’s genitalia – a feature 

that, at the time of its release, added to Bowie’s complex identity, emphasising his 

“hybridity, androgyny, alien-ness”. xliii 

Respond 

Each of Bowie’s album cover designs has involved a collaboration between Bowie and 

another artist, as he seeks to realise the vision he has for his albums. 

Take note of the range of artists with whom Bowie has collaborated when designing his 

covers. 

Which piece of cover art do you find most striking? 

What are the advantages for Bowie of collaborating with someone he has worked 

with previously and what are the disadvantages? 

Bowie has worked with some brilliant costume designers over the course of his career. 

Which of the costumes in the exhibition is your favourite? 

Who designed it? 

What period of Bowie’s performance career does it come from? 

Why has it captured your imagination? 

How effectively did this particular costume build character, image and 

performance? 


Page 33 of 63

Has Bowie worked with this designer on other projects? If so, which ones? How 

do these separate collaborative projects relate to each other? 


Record Producers 

Tony Visconti is Bowie’s best-known collaborator and has worked on many Bowie 

albums. You can find a number of online interviews in which he reflects on the 

recording and collaboration process. 

Watch this BBC interview where he describes recording Bowie’s most recent 

album The Next Day: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-20953094 

Read this interview in which Visconti describes working with Bowie, observing 

that “when you’re at a master level like David, you can ‘jam’ a song into 

existence”: http://www.roland.co.uk/blog/roland-talk-exclusively-with-davidbowie-producer-tony-visconti/ 

xliv 

- What other valuable insights does Visconti offer about recording with 

Bowie? 

Along with Visconti, Bowie has worked with many highly respected producers including 

Ken Scott, Brian Eno and Nile Rodgers. 

Find out more about the role of the record producer. 

Choose one of the great producers with whom Bowie has worked. 

- List the albums/songs they collaborated on. 

- 

Find out as much as you can about the producer’s strengths and explain 

what special something he contributed to the albums he worked on with 

Bowie. xlv 

- What other artists has this producer worked for? 

Jonathan Barnbrook 

Barnbrook has designed three of Bowie’s album covers: Heathen, Reality and The 

Next Day. 

Compare the visual style of each of these covers. 


Page 34 of 63

Barnbrook is a well-known designer of custom fonts and launched his Priori font 

on the cover of Heathen and the Doctrine font on the cover of The Next Day. 

How important are the fonts to the overall design? (You might like to use 

Photoshop to insert different fonts in their place to better assess their impact.) 

Can you identify a distinctive Barnbrook style? Explain your answer. 

Barnbrook’s design for The Next Day proved quite controversial: for some people 

it was a ‘non-design’, for others, it seemed disrespectful to the much-revered 

“Heroes” album. What do you think of the cover of The Next Day? 

You can read an interview with Barnbrook about his design here: 

http://virusfonts.com/news/2013/01/david-bowie-the-next-day-that-album-coverdesign/ 

You can also watch an interview with Barnbrook on the V&A website. 

www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/david-bowie-is/about-the-exhibition/ 


Page 35 of 63


Page 36 of 63 

Album cover shoot for Aladdin Sane, 1973. Photograph by Brian Duffy 

Photo Duffy © Duffy Archive & The David Bowie Archive.

Characters 

His brilliance is to become someone else for the length of a song, 

sometimes for a whole album or even a tour. Bowie is a ventriloquist. 

Simon Critchley xlvi 

A key element of Bowie’s music and his performance is its theatricality. Creating a 

character like Ziggy Stardust gave him a persona through which he could channel his 

performance. Ziggy’s heavy makeup and outrageous outfits drew on Bowie’s 

fascination with kabuki, a theatrical art form based on “visual excess” and the creation 

of character through mask and costume. When touring and performing on stage, Bowie 

has continued to create new characters. Alternative identities and costumes have 

always played a significant role in this process. Subsequent characters have been less 

extravagantly all-encompassing, but continue to be connected to Bowie’s creative and 

musical ideas rather than revealing any kind of personal truth. 

All of us create characters, alter egos and personae with which to face the world. 

Bowie’s genius has been to open up the possibilities available for this form of selfconstruction. 

In particular, he highlights the interconnection between gender and 

performance and challenges the stultifying binary opposition in western culture 

between masculinity and femininity. Even before Bowie created the extraordinary 

Ziggy, he experimented with androgyny. His man-dresses and flowing locks channelled 

the Hollywood glamour of movie stars like Lauren Bacall and Katharine Hepburn, and 

he was portrayed as a pre-Raphaelite beauty on the album cover of The Man Who 

Sold the World. xlvii 

Ziggy took Bowie’s androgynous style to another level. With Ziggy, he embodied a 

character whose alien persona seemed to exist beyond gender: “Bowie-as-Ziggy 

refused the dominant norms of existing society: boy/girl, human/alien, gay/straight.” xlviii 

Despite being ‘killed off’ by Bowie after a comparatively short life, Ziggy’s capacity to 

break free from gender categories has remained part of Bowie’s identity. 

Bowie’s recorded music and his use of music video has also elaborated a range of 

different ways of being. ‘Ashes to Ashes’ sees him reflecting on his persona and his 

career as he revisits the character of Major Tom from ‘Space Oddity’: “You have to 

accommodate your pasts within your persona. You have to understand why you went 

through them.” xlix 

In 1. Outside, Bowie drew on a fictional detective character called Nathan Adler to 

create a concept album with the subtitle: "The Diary of Nathan Adler or the Art-Ritual 

Murder of Baby Grace Blue: A non-linear Gothic Drama Hyper-Cycle”. For the album, 

Bowie created seven characters which he ‘performs’ in a series of photographs 

included in the album booklet. 

The Next Day dramatises a range of experiences and associations, with ‘Where Are 

We Now?’ revisiting the Bowie of the Berlin era and ‘The Stars (Are Out Tonight)’ 


Page 37 of 63

eflecting on the nature of celebrity – a reflection that is given a witty twist in its 

reiteration of the androgynous figure that has been such a significant element of 

Bowie’s celebrity identity. 

Respond 

• What is the role of character in Bowie’s work? 

• Why is the creation of characters such as Ziggy such a distinctive element of 

Bowie’s work? How do these characters affect/influence the relationship between 

Bowie and his audience? 

Choose a costume (on display or in a photograph) that immediately draws your 

attention either because it has a ‘wow’ factor or makes you want to know more. 

• Describe it and explain how it relates to Bowie’s creative career. 

• Describe your initial response. 

• Why has this particular Bowie persona captured your attention? Explain. 

• How does the costume help build character? 

Bowie’s performance of Ziggy transgressed many boundaries, not least the association 

between rock music and authenticity. Bowie openly flouted this expectation, proudly 

declaring himself to be an actor playing a role. According to Simon Critchley, “Bowie’s 

truth is inauthentic, completely self-conscious and utterly constructed.” l 

• Explore the character of Ziggy in the exhibition space, and think about Critchley’s 

comment. Try to explain its meaning with reference to the ideas about 

performance, persona and music fundamental to the character’s construction. 

• You will notice that the Ziggy costume is being displayed as if in a coffin to 

remind us that he was ‘killed’ by Bowie at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 

3 July 1973. Do you think Bowie was successful in his attempt to kill off Ziggy? 

Explain your answer. 

As you engage in the exhibition as a whole with Bowie’s performances from different 

time periods and in different performance contexts, consider the characters he has 

created. 

• What are the different techniques he has used to create them? Give examples. 

• How has Bowie used costume, hair and makeup to create character? Focus on a 

range of characters and performances. 


Page 38 of 63


Discuss 

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars evidently were not from 

Mars: they didn't look like aliens so much as a bunch of overgrown 

kids playing at dressing up – which was, in its way, even more 

alluring. We may be different, they seemed to be saying, but we're 

also just like you. li 

• Watch Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars on Top of the Pops, on stage 

and in the Mick Rock music videos. Do you agree or disagree with Thomas 

Jones’ suggestion that the band’s ordinariness was the basis of their appeal, 

rather than their alien strangeness? Explain your answer. 

• Can Jones’ observation be reconciled with the passionate declarations by fans 

that seeing Ziggy changed their lives? 

Versions of Bowie 

Because of the fragmentary nature of Bowie’s artistic identity, interviewers are always 

keen to ‘pin him down’ by asking him to explain himself. You can access a number of 

recorded interviews, talk-show appearances and print-based interviews online. 

• Focus on a character, album or other significant moment in Bowie’s performance 

career and watch or read two or three Bowie interviews. 

- How illuminating do you find Bowie’s commentary? 

- Does Bowie say the same thing in each of the interviews you have 

accessed? 

- Do you think we ever get to see or hear the ‘real’ Bowie? Explain. 

- Are artists necessarily the most reliable interpreters of their own work? 

- How important is the audience in the creation of character and in making 

meaning out of Bowie’s work? 

Kabuki 

Bowie has a longstanding interest in the performance art of kabuki. Aspects of kabuki 

that he has drawn on during his performance career include: 


Page 39 of 63

‒ the externalisation of character and personality through costume – “ a change 

of kimono meant a change of personality” lii 

‒ mask-like makeup 

‒ visual excess 

‒ the movement of male characters between male and female roles 

• Explain how Bowie has drawn on the traditions of kabuki to create character, 

focusing on: costume, makeup, performance and design. 

• There are a number of interesting websites relating to kabuki. You might like to 

begin with this one: Kabuki Theatre: Costuming & Make-up 

http://jluvscountry925.wix.com/kabuki-costume#!make-up 

Metallic bodysuit, 1973 Designed by Kansai Yamamoto for the Aladdin Sane tour. 

Courtesy The David Bowie Archive. Photo © Victoria and Albert Museum 


Page 40 of 63

Impact 

Bowie is a conceptual artist, it seems to me, who just happens 

to work in the popular song, and he wants to make work that 

goes somewhere new. 

Rick Moody liii 

As a performer and musician, Bowie captured the imagination of people who felt like 

outsiders, particularly young people. By questioning the norms that dominated the lived 

experience of many of his fans, Bowie gave them an opportunity to transcend their 

everyday lives – at least in their imaginations. His much-mythologised appearance on 

Top of the Pops has been described as “a spectacle of not belonging”, encapsulating 

Bowie’s capacity to provide a liberating alternative to the mainstream. 

Bowie has offered his fans and audience a form of freedom through his challenge to 

the idea of the authentic self: “this is the guy who is not one guy, but a platoon of 

guys”. liv Through his embodiment of various characters, Bowie gave his audience the 

licence to be different, creating space for alternative, unpredictable, transgressive and 

multiple versions of the self. As Simon Critchley observes: 

As fragile and inauthentic as our identities are, Bowie let us (and 

still lets us) believe that we can reinvent ourselves. In fact, we 

can reinvent ourselves because our identities are so fragile and 

inauthentic. 

lv 

Bowie challenged people to think about the world in different ways. His seventies 

rebellion, a reflection of the “dread and misgiving” that underscored the decade, was 

different from the political and social movements of the sixties that focused on 

optimistic dreams of progress. lvi 

I think in the 70s that there was a general feeling of chaos, a feeling 

that the idea of the 60s as ''ideal'' was a misnomer. Nothing seemed 

ideal anymore. Everything seemed in-between. …. With my work, it 

was just horror: ''Well, it's all over! So just dress up! Put your best 

clothes on because it's finished!'' lvii 

From within this context, Bowie created Ziggy “an eternal outsider who could act as a 

beacon for anyone who felt ostracized from the world around them“. lviii 

Ziggy and Bowie’s subsequent characters and performances offered an escape from 

the rules and constraints dominating everyday existence. Bowie did not simply ‘break‘ 

the rules but threw them out the window. For fans, this disregard and deconstruction of 

social and cultural norms and boundaries was at the heart of his allure; for others, 

Bowie’s transgressions needed to be contained and moderated. 


Page 41 of 63

In a Nationwide report (BBC, 1973), this process of containment involved disapproval 

and barely-disguised ridicule of both Bowie and his fans. Along with anxieties about 

Bowie’s challenging performance persona, Bowie’s creative exploration of gender and 

identity has highlighted fundamental social anxieties about the body and sexuality. In 

this section of the exhibition, you can encounter a number of instances of censorship in 

Bowie’s career, relating to these social anxieties. 

Respond 

• Note the instances of censorship that are detailed in the exhibition. 

• What is your response to these examples? 

• What do they have in common? 

• Does it surprise you that Bowie’s creative work has been censored as recently as 

the 1990s? lix 

Bowie has continually drawn attention to the artificiality of gender boundaries and 

identities. 

• Watch the music video for ‘The Boys Keep Swinging’. What do you think Bowie is 

communicating (a) through the lyrics (b) in the music video performance? 

• In an interview in which Bowie’s wife, Iman, asked him about this song, Bowie 

commented that it plays “on the idea of the colonization of gender”. lx 

‒ What does this mean? 

‒ How does Bowie communicate this in the music video? 


Nationwide 

Watch the BBC’s 1973 Nationwide report online: 

• What is the perspective adopted in the commentary? 

• How are Bowie’s fans represented? 

• How does this report communicate the boundaries and limitations of British 

society at the time? 


Page 42 of 63

• Referring to Bowie’s fans, the narrator comments that “What they don’t realise is 

that behind the freakish image, the Bowie circus, right down to the flashy car, is a 

well-oiled show business machine.” 

Do you think the fans are really unaware of this? 

• Why is Bowie’s careful crafting of performance and image considered to be a 

problem? 

• Bowie comments that he aims to “startle people”. 

‒ Why does he want to do this? 

‒ What aspects of his performance as Ziggy are startling? 

‒ Bowie argues that it has become increasingly hard to startle or surprise 

because of the media’s “habit of being able to dissipate everything”. Is this 

something that might apply to media communications today? How difficult is it 

to surprise people in today’s society? 

• Bowie tells his interviewer: “I am an actor.” What does he mean? 

Fashion 

‒ Why is this a surprising or unexpected thing for him to say? 

‒ Why does this statement give him the upper hand? 

Fashion is often caught up in ideas of consumption and conformity (which Bowie 

explores in his 1980 song ‘Fashion’). However, Bowie used fashion as a form of 

expression to break down expectations. He was a “flag-bearer for fashion that simply 

transcends categories”. lxi 

• What is the role of fashion and costume in Bowie’s performances? Explain. 

• How does Bowie use clothes as a form of self-expression and reinvention? Give 

some specific examples. You might like to refer to this gallery of images 

http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/celebrity-photos/2013/03/06/david-bowie-style-file--- 

fashion-history-in-pictures 

While Bowie’s own style has been one of constant change, some of his “looks” have 

become iconic. 

• Which versions of Bowie have resisted his continuing reinvention? 

• What makes these moments in his performance history so memorable? 


Page 43 of 63

Fans 

Bowie’s appeal is multifaceted but many fans remain loyally committed to the 

constantly transforming Bowie of the 1970s, particularly the Ziggy period. For many, 

this loyalty is connected to Bowie’s capacity to break down categories and conventions. 

• Why have Bowie’s fans remained so loyal? 

• What other performers, musicians or artists have generated a similar loyalty from 

their audience? What do they have in common with Bowie? 

In Michael Apted’s 1997 documentary Inspirations, Bowie says artists are distinguished 

by a tendency to “look at the world as some usable substance more than a non-artist 

would”. lxii 

• What is special about Bowie’s way of looking at the world? 

• What is it about this perspective that has generated such recognition and fan 

loyalty? 


Page 44 of 63


Page 45 of 63 

David Bowie, 1973. Photograph by Masayoshi Sukita 

© Sukita / The David Bowie Archive

Sound and Vision 

Music Videos 

From very early in his career, Bowie has been interested in the power of the moving 

image and participated in the filming of the promotional video ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ in 

1969. In 1972-73 Mick Rock directed four music videos for Bowie including ‘John, I’m 

Only Dancing’, described as “the very moment the modern idea of a video was born.” lxiii 

Rock also directed the mesmerising video for ‘Life on Mars’, in which a heavily madeup 

Bowie shimmers against a white background. 

With the advent of the MTV age, Bowie seized on music video to further enhance his 

performance and explore ideas: “For the visually adept Bowie, it was an opportunity to 

play to his strengths.” lxiv As well as appealing to him as a performer, music video also 

provides Bowie a visual language that directly connects with the imagery central to his 

songwriting. He relishes the ways in which music videos open up creative possibilities 

by allowing the juxtaposition of unexpected and powerful images – the kinds of images 

that we associate with dreaming: “That's one of the reasons I'm into video; the image 

has to hit immediately. I adore video and the whole cutting up of it.” lxv 

Bowie uses music video to illustrate his songs and his performance with the dreamlike 

impressionism and striking visual language associated with Surrealism. The 

hallucinatory, otherworldly quality that Bowie embraces was used to full effect in ‘Ashes 

to Ashes’, his most celebrated music video from the 1980s. The song has been 

described by Bowie as an epitaph to the seventies and the video picked up on themes 

of loss. lxvi Co-directed by Bowie and David Mallet, the concept was story-boarded by 

Bowie who commissioned costume designer Natasha Korniloff to design the distinctive 

Pierrot costume. 

In 1983, Bowie worked with director David Mallet to film the music videos for ‘Let’s 

Dance’ and ‘China Girl’ in Australia. The ‘Let’s Dance’ video featured dancers Terry 

Roberts and Joelene King from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dance 

Company and highlighted ongoing racism in Australian society. lxvii 

The deconstructed and impressionistic form of expression used so effectively in 

Bowie’s music videos is also an integral element of Bowie’s collaborations with artist 

and filmmaker Floria Sigismondi. Like Bowie, Sigismondi is fascinated with, 

theatricality, art and the surreal. The ‘Dead Man Walking’ music video draws on the 

pair’s shared interest in the artwork of Francis Bacon. The release of Bowie’s 2013 

album The Next Day was accompanied by two new Sigismondi video collaborations: 

the controversial ‘The Next Day’, in which Bowie plays a Christ-like figure, and the 

much-discussed and highly cinematic ‘The Stars (Are Out Tonight)’ in which Bowie is 

joined by actress Tilda Swinton. 


Page 46 of 63

In contrast to the cinematic complexity of the Sigismondi music videos, Bowie chose a 

much simpler process for ‘Love is Lost’, the fifth single released from The Next Day. 

Bowie made and edited the music video himself in just 72 hours. With assistance from 

a couple of friends and using puppets designed for an earlier, unrealised project, Bowie 

was able to boast that the video was made for only $13 – the price of the thumb drive 

used to download it from the camera. 

Respond 

Bowie has always treated music video as an art form and another way of expressing 

himself creatively. He has worked with many talented directors in the course of his 

career. You will see many of Bowie’s music videos during your visit. 

• Describe your favourite Bowie music video. 

‒ Why does it stand out? What do you like about it? Give details. 

‒ What are some of the most effective or striking filmmaking techniques used? 

While in the gallery, think about the way that Bowie presents himself in the different 

videos. 

• What are some of the stand-out music video performances? Why? Explain. 

• How is costume used to create character and mood? 

Bowie’s songs are lyrically and musically complex. What are some of the ways his 

music videos create a connection with his audience? 


Mick Rock 

Photographer Mick Rock played an important role in promoting the Ziggy Stardust 

character through his memorable photography and through the creation of four music 

videos: ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’, ‘The Jean Genie’, ‘Space Oddity’ and ‘Life on Mars’. 

• Watch these videos and consider: 

‒ the similarities and differences in style 


Page 47 of 63

‒ the range of techniques Rock developed and experimented with at this early 

stage in music-video production 

‒ what is being communicated about the character 

‒ the relationship between the song and the performance in the music video. 

The Eighties 

The eighties ushered in the age of the music video; during this decade Bowie threw 

himself into this art form. 

• Watch a selection of Bowie’s music videos from the 1980s and describe the 

interconnection between sound and vision. 

‒ What does the video add to the song? 

‒ What performance persona does Bowie project? 

• How important are costume and makeup to the Bowie image/persona in each of 

these videos? 

Many of Bowie’s music videos from this time were collaborations with director David 

Mallet. The pair reunited in 1994 for the ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ music video, a brilliant piece 

of video art that combines new and found footage to create a seamless interconnection 

between sound and vision. 

• Find out more about this collaboration and the skills that both Bowie and Mallet 

brought to the project. 

Floria Sigismondi has directed a number of Bowie music videos: ‘Little Wonder’, ‘Dead 

Man Walking’, ‘The Stars (Are Out Tonight)’, and the controversial ‘The Next Day’. 

• What, if anything, do these videos have in common? 

In explaining why he enjoys working with Floria Sigismondi, Bowie has mentioned that 

he admires the “texture” of her work, her use of abstract narrative techniques and the 

fact that she is “a little bit crazy, in a dark way”. lxviii 

• Watch one of the videos directed by Sigismondi and consider how these qualities 

emerge and are expressed. 

• You can find the music videos she has made for Bowie and a number of other 

artists on her website http://www.floriasigismondi.com/film/ 


Page 48 of 63

Watch the music video made to accompany the release of the James Murphy remix of 

‘Love is Lost’: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/david-bowie-raids-puppetarchive-in-love-is-lost-remix-clip-20131031 

• What techniques has Bowie used in this ‘homemade’ music video? 

• What makes this music video distinctively Bowie in style? 

• The imagery draws on the viewer’s knowledge of Bowie’s previous work. How 

does it do this and what is the effect of this referencing of the past? 

David Bowie during the filming of the 'Ashes to Ashes' video, 1980. 

Photograph by Brian Duffy 

Photo Duffy © Duffy Archive & The David Bowie Archive. 


Page 49 of 63

Stage and Screen 

Bowie doesn't disappear into the roles he plays. Regardless of 

context, he's always recognisably David Bowie. At best, though, this 

isn't a weakness but a strength, since being Bowie, by its nature, 

always seems to entail being someone else. 

Jake Wilson lxix 

Whether performing live in concert, acting on front of a film camera, appearing on stage 

in a theatre or chatting on television, Bowie is first and foremost an actor. He has 

always considered music and performance as inextricably linked. At the very beginning 

of his musical career, he studied mime and performed on stage and television, and 

made the promotional film Love you Till Tuesday (1969). 

When making the feature film The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), director Nicholas 

Roeg cast Bowie as Newton, an alien who comes to Earth in an attempt to save his 

planet. Bowie embodies the strange otherness of this character and delivers an 

unforgettable performance. His many other film roles include the charming and 

tormented Major Jack Celliers in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), the creepy 

Goblin King in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (1986), Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese’s The 

Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and the mysterious Nikola Tesla in Christopher 

Nolan’s The Prestige (2006). 

Bowie achieved critical acclaim in the role of John Merrick in a Broadway production of 

The Elephant Man. One of the challenges of this role was communicating Merrick’s 

extreme physical deformity without any prosthetic enhancement. As well as utilising his 

early training in mime, Bowie also channelled his instinctive curiosity about outsiders 

and misfits. 

Respond 

Take the time to view clips from some of Bowie’s acting performances. You can see 

Bowie performing the following roles: 

‒ The Boy in The Image (Armstrong, 1969) 

‒ Thomas Jerome Newton in The Man Who Fell to Earth (Roeg, 1976) 

‒ John Merrick in The Elephant Man (1980), Broadway production of the play 

written by Bernard Pomerance 

‒ Jack Celliers in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (Oshima, 1983) 

‒ Vendice Partners in Absolute Beginners (Temple, 1986) 


Page 50 of 63

‒ Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth (Henson, 1986) 

‒ Andy Warhol in Basquiat (Schnabel, 1996) 

‒ Nikola Tesla in The Prestige (Nolan, 2006) 

• How do these examples of Bowie’s work as an actor affect your understanding of 

David Bowie as a performer? 

• Do any of these roles or performances particularly stand out or surprise you? 

Why/why not? 


Take the opportunity to watch some of Bowie’s film performances in full. 

• What are some of the key differences between playing the multiple versions of 

David Bowie (eg Ziggy Stardust) and playing a role in a film or on stage? 

In 1974, Bowie told William S. Burroughs that he considered television a much stronger 

form than cinema lxx and indeed, while he obviously relishes the opportunity to act in 

numerous film roles, he also made some significant television appearances as an 

actor. 

In 1970 he appeared as Cloud alongside mime artist Lindsay Kemp in a production of 

Pierrot in Turquoise or The Looking Glass Murders. In 1982, Bowie’s TV performance 

as Baal took Bowie’s fascination with Weimar Berlin into people’s lounge rooms. In 

2006, Bowie made an unexpected appearance in Ricky Gervais’ satirical comedy 

series Extras. You can watch Bowie’s segment online 

(http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnleeu_extras-david-bowie_shortfilms). 

• What makes this performance funny? 

• How does this performance ‘use’ Bowie’s star image for comic purposes? 

• How and what does it add to Bowie’s multi-faceted persona? 


Page 51 of 63

Black and White Years 

I thought it would be a good thing to place myself in a context 

resembling myself and see what came of it. Two wrongs made a right 

in my case, because it helped me adjust to myself. lxxi 

David Bowie, describing the Berlin Years 

Bowie’s fascination with the art, style and creative expression of Berlin during the 

Weimar period reached a peak in the late seventies. The Station to Station album 

(1976) saw the emergence of Bowie’s final all-encompassing performance character, 

The Thin White Duke. This character stands out from earlier characters due to the 

austerity of its conception and appearance. Described as “dramatic, stylish, emotional 

and danceable“, Station to Station formed the basis of a tour during which Bowie drew 

on the dramatic visual landscape of German Expressionist cinema to light and stage 

his performance. 

Between 1976 and 1979, Bowie worked with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti to record the 

albums known as the Berlin Trilogy: 

Landing in West Berlin in the summer of 1976, on the run from fame 

and excess, Bowie found release in the anonymity of the enclaved 

city state....With no cameras in his face and no one breathing down 

his neck, Bowie was free to reinvent himself musically. lxxii 

Although “Heroes” was the only album recorded exclusively in Berlin’s Hansa studios, 

Bowie’s music from this period is infused with the creative energy generated by the 

time he spent in a city infused with ambiguity and where: “infamy or fame ... doesn't 

mean much“. lxxiii 

The Berlin Trilogy signalled Bowie’s decision to break away from the characters that 

dominated his performance up to that point, though it was by no means a turning away 

from Bowie’s fascination with the relationship between theatrical performance and 

music. As the seventies drew to a close, Bowie returned to the United States and 

performed on Saturday Night Live, staging a piece of conceptual/performance art that 

remains a highlight. As well as designing the extraordinary costume inspired by Tristan 

Tzara’s The Gas Heart, Bowie drew on elements of Berlin‘s cabaret tradition in his 

performance with Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias. 

Respond 

• How does the exhibition create the change in mood that represents the Berlin 

years? 


Page 52 of 63

• The artwork on display in this section highlights another facet of Bowie’s creative 

expression. What does this artwork add to your understanding of Bowie’s work as 

a performer? 

Print after a self-portrait by David Bowie, 1978 

Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive 

Image © Victoria and Albert Museum 


Page 53 of 63


The Thin White Duke 

Inspired by a fascination with Berlin during the Weimar period, Bowie created the 

elegant, discreetly attired character, the Thin White Duke. 

• 

Bowie described this character as “an emotionless Aryan superman”. lxxiv 

• Listen to some of the music Bowie was recording and playing at this time and 

explain how this character complemented this music. How did Bowie use this 

character to “sell’ the music on record and on stage? (Consider record cover 

artwork, costume and stage design.) 

• 

Is it surprising that Bowie would deliberately create a character that offers his 

audience no obvious emotional connection? If Ziggy Stardust’s outrageous 

nonconformity drew fans in – particularly those who felt alienated by mainstream 

society – what is the purpose and effect of a character described as an “amoral 

zombie”? lxxv 

• Find out more about the historical and creative context that inspired this 

character. 

• How did Bowie use the conventions of German Expressionist cinema in the 

performance of this character – particularly on stage in the Station to Station 

tour? 

Berlin 

According to Bowie: 

Berlin was the artistic and cultural gateway of Europe in the Twenties 

and virtually anything important that happened in the arts happened 

there. And I wanted to plug into that. lxxvi 

• Find out more about Berlin between the wars. 

‒ Why did this city attract so many artists? 

‒ What is German Expressionism – in art and in film? 

‒ What was the role of cabaret? 

Bowie has said that he was particularly inspired by the filmmakers F.W. Murnau and 

Fritz Lang, explaining that he was attracted to the abstract elements in their work: “Art 

should be open enough for me to develop my own dialogue with it.” 


Page 54 of 63

• Find out more about these filmmakers. 

‒ How might their work be considered open, allowing dialogue? 

‒ How do their films relate to Bowie’s use of abstraction in his work? 

Film Noir 

For the music video of his 2014 single ‘Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)’, Bowie used film 

noir, a Hollywood film style that alludes to the Expressionist style used by German 

filmmakers in the 1920s. 

• Watch the video and describe its use of light, dark and shadow. 

• What is the effect of this technique? 

• How does it relate to the musical style of the song? 

• What emotions are being expressed in the lyrics of the song? How do the music 

and the filmmaking technique add to the song’s emotional intensity? 

• Find out more about film noir and explain how its association with crime and 

detective films adds to the song’s communication of love and betrayal. 

Performance: The Shows 

David Bowie is concludes with an immersive experience of Bowie’s power as a 

performer, highlighting his pioneering theatricality and innovative combination of sound 

and vision. 

Bowie has always been a brilliant and mesmerising performer, both when inhabiting a 

character and when appearing as a version of David Bowie. The Ziggy Stardust 

concerts form an essential marker in the history of popular music and culture, 

culminating in the dramatic killing off of Ziggy in the final concert at London’s 

Hammersmith Odeon on 3 July, 1973. The concert footage in the exhibition gives 

visitors a taste of the exhilarating intensity of these live performances. So much has 

been said and written about what Ziggy looked like, it is important to be reminded of the 

extraordinary energy and showmanship Bowie displayed when performing this 

character on stage. 

The Diamond Dogs tour, inspired by Bowie’s original plans for a musical based on 

George Orwell’s novel 1984, began as an extraordinary spectacle and, after ten weeks 

of performances, was stripped back to become The Soul Tour. lxxvii Other memorable 

tours include the acclaimed Serious Moonlight Tour (1983), the extravagantly staged 


Page 55 of 63

Glass Spider Tour (1987) and the Sound and Vision our in which Bowie “retired” his old 

songs. 

Bowie’s Australian tours were hugely successful and are commemorated in David 

Bowie is. When Melbourne fans queued for weeks out the front of the Melbourne 

Cricket Ground to purchase tickets for Bowie’s first Australian tour in 1978, it was 

reported around the world. Many fans queued up again to secure the best seats when 

the gates opened for Bowie’s performance. This event was recreated in the opening of 

Richard Lowenstein’s film Dogs in Space (1986). lxxviii 

Bowie’s appearances at events such as the Glastonbury Festival, The Freddie Mercury 

Tribute concert and The Concert for New York City demonstrate his professionalism 

and his capacity to win over a crowd. He has an unerring capacity to make each live 

performance of a song a fresh rendition, no matter how familiar it is. As well as the 

constant renewal and reinterpretation of his material, Bowie has continued to remake 

his image, using costume, hair and makeup to add to the performance and to signal 

change and renewal. 

Respond 

• As you experience this area of the exhibition, what elements of the design stand 

out for you? Focus on elements such as screen size, music and sound, costume, 

song choice, lighting. 

• Which performance moments do you find the most powerful? Try to identify the 

elements that contribute to your response. 

Recorded in Berlin in 1977, ‘Heroes’ is one of Bowie’s best-loved and most critically 

acclaimed songs. David Bowie is provides segments from six different versions of this 

musical masterpiece: 

‒ The music video (1977) 

‒ Live Aid (1985) 

‒ The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert (1992) 

‒ The Glastonbury Festival (2000) 

‒ The Concert for New York City (2001) 

‒ Isle of Wight Festival (2004) 

• How does Bowie refresh and reimagine this song for each of these audiences? 


Page 56 of 63

In providing a new interpretation, Bowie must keep the key elements of this great song. 

• What do you consider the fundamental and iconic elements of the song? 

• How does Bowie maintain the balance between giving the audience the key 

features of a song they love and infusing new life into the live performance of it? 

If you think he doesn’t maintain this balance, give reasons. 

• What do you expect from an artist when attending a live performance? 

• What is the best live performance you have ever experienced or heard? 


The Tours 

• Research one of Bowie’s concert tours. 

‒ Find out about the staging, the band, the set list of songs, the costumes and 

make-up. 

‒ At what stage of Bowie’s musical career did this concert tour take place? 

‒ Which record is it publicising? 

‒ What kind of creative and musical vision do the concert performances 

communicate? Explain. 

• Choose a stage performance from each decade of Bowie’s performance career 

and describe the qualities that have endured over time and the aspects of 

Bowie’s stage appearances that have changed. 

Ziggy Stardust 

It is hard to imagine how stunned the audience attending Ziggy’s final concert must 

have been when Bowie made his announcement that he was killing off the character. 

• Imagine you were a music journalist in the audience that night and write a review 

of this final concert. 

• Imagine you were a fan in the audience and need to find an outlet for your 

emotions. 

‒ Create a visual artwork, write to a friend, produce a diary entry or compose a 

song or a poem. 


Page 57 of 63

‒ What kind of emotions are you channelling? Grief? Shock? Confusion? A 

sense of betrayal? 

Diamond Dogs 

• When Bowie changed tack in the middle of the Diamond Dogs tour, he threw out 

most of the songs his audience knew and replaced them with the new material he 

was working on, material that was in a completely different musical style. 

‒ What would your response be in a similar situation? 

‒ What responsibility (if any) does an artist have to deliver an audience what 

they expect? 

‒ What should the balance be of familiar and unfamiliar material in a music 

concert? 

Collaboration 

For a performer who is so renowned for his individualism and self-expression, Bowie 

has performed successfully on stage with a number of other performers including Annie 

Lennox, Nine Inch Nails, Robert Smith and Gail Ann Dorsey. 

• Focus on one of Bowie’s onstage duets and explain how this process of public 

collaboration adds to or changes Bowie’s public persona. 

Influence 

David Bowie is concludes by giving visitors a taste of the depth, breadth and ongoing 

nature of Bowie’s influence on people, the arts, fashion and popular culture. The 

montage represents the myriad artists, performers and works of art influenced by 

Bowie’s boundless, unpredictable and inspiring creativity. 

Bowie’s influence on Australian musicians and artists has been profound and ongoing, 

as new generations connect with both his legacy and his continuing creative 

contribution. lxxix 

Respond 

• What are some of the ways that Bowie has changed the world? 

• Focus on an artist you recognise in the montage that forms the epilogue or 

closing stages of the exhibition experience. 

‒ How has Bowie influenced this individual or group? 


Page 58 of 63

‒ Has your visit to the exhibition added to your understanding of these artists? 

How? Explain. 


• How has what you have learnt about Bowie changed you? 

• What has it added to your understanding of 21st-century music, fashion and 

performance? 

• Find out more about David Bowie and the artists who influenced him. 

• Create a collage, montage or other work of art to represent the cultural 

experiences, artworks and people who have made you what you are today. 

i Critchley, Simon, Bowie, OR Books, New York and London, 2014, p. 18. 

ii “David Bowie is Curator Interview”, Phaidon, 25 March 2013. 

http://au.phaidon.com/agenda/design/articles/2013/march/25/david-bowie-is-part-two-of-ourcurator-interview/ 

iii The exhibition includes 300 pieces drawn from the 75,000 items contained in David Bowie’s 

personal archive. 

iv This performance was watched by more than a quarter of the British population. See, for 

example, Critchley, p. 9. 

v “Bowie in Melbourne”, Bowie Channel, www.acmi.net.au/bowie-channel / 

vi Potter, Matt, “Hello Again, Spaceboy”, Sabotage Times, 11 January, 2013, 

http://sabotagetimes.com/music/hello-again-spaceboy 

vii Masters, Tim, “Bowie’s New Songs for Lazarus sound like Classics”, 13 April 2015, BBC, 

www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32281816 

viii Devora, Abby, “11 Artists who were Definitely Influenced by the Iconic David Bowie”, MTV 

News, 23 September 2014, http://www.mtv.com/news/1938419/david-bowie-artists-influenced/ 

ix Interview about 1. Outside album, 1995, 

x Garratt, Sheryl, “Kansai Yamamoto on designing for David Bowie in April 1973”, The 

Telegraph, 17 March 2013, http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/article/TMG9933155/Kansai- 

Yamamoto-on-designing-for-David-Bowie-in-1973.htm l 

xi Frick, Thomas, “J. G. Ballard, The Art of Fiction No. 85”, The Paris Review, Winter 1984, No. 

94, http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2929/the-art-of-fiction-no-85-j-g-ballard 


Page 59 of 63

xii Refer to Howard Goodall’s excellent essay in the exhibition catalogue for an insightful 

discussion of Bowie’s music, including these early recordings. “Bowie Music: Lucky Old Sun in 

my Sky…”, Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh eds, Bowie Catalogue, V&A Publishing, 

South Kensington, 2013. 

xiii Doggett, Peter, The Man who Sold the World: David Bowie and the 1970s, HarperCollins, 

New York, 2012, p. 2. 

xiv This album was originally titled David Bowie (the same as his first album) but was rereleased 

as Space Oddity. 

xv Anders, William, Earthrise, NASA, Image Gallery, 

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1249.html 

xvi Maconie, Stuart, “Ziggy Stardust changed our lives: How David Bowie's alien creation 

transformed Britain when he crash-landed 40 years ago”, Mirror, 7 June 2012, 

www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/going-out/music/david-bowie-ziggy-stardust-at-40-865841 

xvii Trynka, Paul, Starman: David Bowie the Definitive Biography, London, Sphere, 2011, p. 2. 

xviii Forster, Robert, “Robert Forster's guide to David Bowie in the '70s”, Double J Website, 4 

May 2014, http://doublej.net.au/news/features/robert-forsters-guide-david-bowie-70s 

xix Siouxsie Sioux in Jones, Dylan, When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie and Four Minutes 

that Shook the World, Preface, London, 2012, p. 124. 

xx David Bowie quoted in Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Titan, UK, 2011. ebook 

xxi Moody, Rick, “Swinging Modern Sounds #44: And Another Day”, The Rumpus, 25 April 

2013, http://therumpus.net/2013/04/swinging-modern-sounds-44-and-another-day/ 

xxii Crowe, Cameron, Interview with David Bowie, Playboy, September 1976, The Uncool: 

Official website of Cameron Crowe, http://www.theuncool.com/journalism/david-bowie-playboymagazine/ 

xxiii You can see an image of the 1921 performance of The Gas Heart here 

http://library.calvin.edu/hda/sites/default/files/cas882h.jpg 

xxiv In Trynka, p. 305. 

xxv Bowie in Wacker, Kellie A., “All’s Well, the Twentieth Century Dies: David Bowie as 

Postmodern Art Detective”, Refractory, 14 October 2005, 

http://refractory.unimelb.edu.au/2005/10/14/alls-well-the-twentieth-century-dies-david-bowie-aspostmodern-art-detective-professor-kellie-a-wacker/ 

xxvi In Trynka, p. 127. 

xxvii In Trynka, p. 127. 

xxviii Cracked Actor (Yentob, 1974) 

xxix “David Bowie: I’m Hungry for Reality Part 4”, Uncut, 8 January 2013, 

http://www.uncut.co.uk/features/david-bowie-i-m-hungry-for-reality-part-4-27210 


Page 60 of 63

xxx “William S. Burroughs Cut-ups “, Language is a Virus, 

http://www.languageisavirus.com/articles/articles.php?subaction=showcomments&id=10991110 

44&archive&start_from&ucat#.VY9TElWqqko 

xxxi Jones, Josh, “How David Bowie, Kurt Cobain & Thom Yorke Write Songs With William 

Burroughs’ Cut-Up Technique”, Open Culture, http://www.openculture.com/2015/02/bowie-cutup-technique.html 

xxxii Doggett, p. 233. 

xxxiii Lewis, Pericles, “To Make a Dadaist Poem”, The Modernism Lab at Yale University, 

http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/To_Make_a_Dadaist_Poem 

xxxiv Buckley, David, Strange Fascination: David Bowie The Definitive Story, Random House, 

London, 2012. 

xxxv Jones. 

xxxvi Ibid. 

xxxvii Springer, Mike, “Listen to Freddie Mercury and David Bowie on the Isolated Vocal Track 

for the Queen Hit ‘Under Pressure,’ 1981”, Open Culture 4 June 2013, 

http://www.openculture.com/2013/06/listen_to_freddie_mercury_and_david_bowie_on_the_isol 

ated_vocal_track_for_the_queen_hit_under_pressure_1981.html 

xxxviii “Roland talk exclusively with David Bowie producer, Tony Visconti”, Roland Website, 

www.roland.co.uk/blog/roland-talk-exclusively-with-david-bowie-producer-tony-visconti/ and 

Hutchinson, Lydia, “Tony Visconti”, Performing Songwriter, 24 April 2013, 

http://performingsongwriter.com/tony-visconti / 

xxxix “Returning to the Sound of Those Golden Years”, The New York Times, 10 September 

1995 

xl Trynka, p. 364. 

xli Doggett, p. 236 

xliii Redmond, Sean, “Who am I now? Remembering the enchanted dogs of David Bowie”, 

Celebrity Studies, 4:3, 2013, pp. 380-383 

xliv “Roland talk exclusively with David Bowie producer, Tony Visconti”. 

xlv Bowie has never worked with a female producer. 

xlvi Critchley, p. 40. 

xlvii Ellis-Petersen, Hannah, “Spiders from Mars to play Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World 

live”, The Guardian, 22 May 2014, 

xlii Hunter, Jackie, “The Day that Lightning Struck”, Stylist, http://www.stylist.co.uk/people/theday-that-lightning-struck 

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/22/spiders-from-mars-to-play-bowies-the-manwho-sold-the-world-live 

xlviii Critchley, p. 32. 

xlix Doggett, p. 373. 


Page 61 of 63

l Critchley 

li Jones, Thomas, “So Ordinary, So Glamorous”, The London Review of Books, Vol 34, No. 7, 5 

April 2012, http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n07/thomas-jones/so-ordinary-so-glamorous 

lii Buckley, David, Strange Fascination: David Bowie the Definitive Story, Random House, 

London, 2012, p. 114. 

liii Moody, Rick, http://therumpus.net/2013/04/swinging-modern-sounds-44-and-another-day / 

liv Ibid 

lv Critchley, 

lvi Doggett, p. 2. 

lvii Kimmelman, Michael, “Talking Art with David Bowie: A Musician’s Passion”, The New York 

lviii Doggett, p. 3. 

lix “David Bowie’s Wallpaper Gets Cleaned Up”, SFGate, 10 April 1995, 

3037490.php 

lx Iman, “Watch that Man”, Bust, October 2000, 

http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/press/00/0010bustiman.htm 

lxi Tempe Nakiska, “Sex Bowie doesn’t Care”, Dazed 

http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/16927/1/sex-bowie-doesnt-care 

lxii Inspirations (Apted, 1997) 

lxiii Lester Bangs quoted in “US Retrospective for Bowie”, BBC News, 29 April, 2002, 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1957434.stm 

lxiv “David Bowie is Inside”, David Bowie is Exhibition Catalogue, V&A Publishing, 2013, p. 136 

lxv Copetus, Craig, “Beat Godfather Meets Glitter Mainman”, Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974, 

Times, 14 June 1998, http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/arts/talking-art-with-david-bowie-amusician-s-parallel-passion.html?pagewanted=2 

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/David-Bowie-s-Wallpaper-Gets-Cleaned-Up- 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beat-godfather-meets-glitter-mainman- 

19740228?page=3 

lxvi Pegg. 

lxvii Gibbs, Ed, “Dancing to Bowie's tune still resonates 30 years on”, The Sydney Morning 

Herald, 6 May 2013 http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/dancing-to-bowies-tune-stillresonates-30-years-on-20130505-2j12i.html 

You can watch Bowie’s interview with Ian Meldrum about the Let’s Dance album on ACMI’s 

Bowie channel: https://www.acmi.net.au/bowie-channel/ 

lxviii “Toronto’s Floria Sigismondi ‘a little bit crazy,’ says David Bowie”, Toronto Life, 29 June 

2015, http://www.torontolife.com/informer/toronto-culture/2010/03/15/torontos-floria-sigismondia-little-bit-crazy-says-bowie/ 

lxix Wilson, Jake, “David Bowie on film: the fleeting faces of an alien arrival”, The Sydney 

Morning Herald, 4 July, 2015, 


Page 62 of 63

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/david-bowie-on-film-the-fleeting-faces-of-analien-arrival-20150628-ghznqk.html#ixzz3eyWNX3ZZ 

lxx In Copetus. 

lxxi Mantle , Jonathan, “David Bowie”, Vogue, September 1 1978, 

http://www.bowiegoldenyears.com/articles/780901-vogue.html 

lxxii Le Blond, Joseph, “David Bowie's catharsis in divided Berlin revealed in adapted V&A 

show”, The Guardian, 3 March 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/mar/02/davidbowie-is-victoria-albert-museum-berlin 

lxxiii Ibid. 

lxxiv Pegg. 

lxxv Ibid. 

lxxvi Mantle. 

lxxvii Aswad, Jem, “Who Can I Be Now? How David Bowie Spent 1974”, The Record, 15 June 

2014, http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2014/06/15/322274193/who-can-i-be-now-howdavid-bowie-spent-1974 

lxxviii Sejavka, Sam, David Bowie and me: Sam Sejavka on the moment his Melbourne 

changed forever, The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 July 2015, 

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/david-bowie-and-me-sam-sejavka-on-the-moment-hismelbourne-changed-forever-20150627-ghz1hc.html 

lxxix Dwyer, Michael, “David Bowie: a musical revolutionary who was heard around the world”, 

The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 July 2015, http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/david-bowie-amusical-revolutionary-who-was-heard-around-the-world-20150622-ght3vr.html 


Page 63 of 63

CONFIDENTIAL

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?