From his very early years as Davie Jones and the King Bees, through his glam-rock transformation into Ziggy Stardust, his coke-fueled exploits as The Thin White Duke, and even the disastrous Tin Machine period, David Bowie has long held a deep fascination with and appreciation for the visual and performing arts. And this summer, The Museum of Arts and Design will be highlighting Bowie's cinematic achievements with a new audio-visual retrospective: David Bowie, Artist.
The exhibit, which opens on May 9, will showcase the "too-often overlooked diversity and multifaceted nature of Bowie’s total artistic output," with a particular focus on his acting career. Eight of his major films will be shown throughout the two-month event, showcasing roles that span a humanoid alien in The Man Who Fell To Earth, a goblin king in Labyrinth, a vampire in The Hunger, a British officer in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ, and Andy Warhol in Basquiat. Rounding out the movies will also be screenings of The Linguini Incident, a "lost" rom-com starring him and Rosanna Arquette, as well as his seminal 1973 tour film Ziggy Stardust.
In addition to his life on the silver screen, Bowie is arguably the first musician to take full advantage of the cinematic qualities of the music video medium, with peculiar, deeply influential clips for songs such as "Life on Mars?", "Ashes To Ashes," and "DJ." The series will also include kiosks showing those music videos, interviews, concert footage and other audio-visual documentation. The Bowiespective, which runs from May 9 to July 15, is presented in conjunction with MAD’s other summer exhibition: “Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities,” which will showcase small-scale, hand-built depictions of artificial environments and alternative realities.
Below, check out the video for "Ashes to Ashes," Bowie performing "Moonage Daydream" from the Ziggy movie, and the trailer for The Man Who Fell To Earth.
