REVIEW: David Bowie is at the V&A

As a big David Bowie fan i had to see the David Bowie is, exhibition at London's V&A museum. I discovered to my horror months ago that all pre released tickets had sold out instantly so i would have to get all retro and go down south and queue outside the venue. Saying that my visit to the exhibition was more than half way in to the exhibition's residency by the time it got to 10am, there was a large queue of like minded fans who had missed out on the original ticket sale. The V&A release an undisclosed number of tickets each day for people wanting to queue. All i will say is that if you want to get your hands on one of these tickets, you need to be there early.

The David Bowie is.. Exhibition is a previously unseen selection of notes, costumes, video footage and photographs that allows us to get a step closer to forever elusive and rather mysterious David Bowie. This icon of style and music still intrigues his fans to this day. Long gone are the days of Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin sane but the mystery of this star man remains.

The 300exhibits on display have been selected by the V&A and plot the career of Bowie from his humble beginnings as David Jones to the release of his latest, somewhat surprise of an album, “The next Day”

Just the mere selection of photos of illustrate the monumental changes (Didn’t mean to quote the man himself) that he has gone through throughout his career. At the peak of his career, Bowie’s alter egos allowed him a force field operate behind without baring himself to the world. This allowed his creativity to flow. We are treated to a view of how he created some of his more famous lyrics with a process of word selection. (see Below)  

Cut up lyrics for ‘Blackout’ from “Heroes”, David Bowie 1977, © The David Bowie Archive 2012. Image © V&A Images.

 

One major factor became increasingly obvious while looking around the exhibition is that we see how Bowie influenced and was also influenced by contemporary art and culture; the art of Andy Warhol, and also the fashion house of Alexander McQueen to name a few..Without this man, where would we be? Would we have artists like Lady Gaga? He has well and truly embedded himself in the fabric of contemporary culture and i am happy to say, that is where he will stay.

The performance footage allows the visitors the chance to step back in time and give them the feeling of seeing him in person. The star man exhibit especially! I had to remind myself that i wasn't actually at one of his gigs (unfortunately) 

This is a must see exhibition for any Bowie fan but also for any music fan around the world!