Hasta La Ideas

A collection of original costumes, set designs, photographs, instruments and other objects from David Bowie’s personal archive will go on show at the V&A museum in London this March, coinciding with the release of the pop star’s first album and single in a decade.

Above: striped bodysuit for Aladdin Sane tour designed by Kansai Yamamoto (1973), photograph by Masayoshi Sukita from The David Bowie Archive
Top image: The Archer Station to Station tour (1976), photograph by John Rowlands

The V&A’s Theatre and Performance curators have selected over 300 objects for the exhibition, titled David Bowie is, which will be the first international retrospective of the singer’s career.

Above: album cover shoot for Aladdin Sane (1973) courtesy of Duffy Archive

The exhibition will explore how David Bowie’s music has both influenced and been influenced by wider movements in art, design and contemporary culture.

Above: original photography for Earthling album cover (1997) by Frank W Ockenfels 3

On display will be more than 60 stage costumes, including the Ziggy Stardust bodysuits designed by Freddie Burretti in 1972, Kansai Yamamoto’s creations for the 1973 Aladdin Sane tour and a Union Jack coat designed by Alexander McQueen for the cover of the 1997 album Earthling.

Above: photo collage of manipulated film stills from The Man Who Fell to Earth (1975-6) courtesy of The David Bowie Archive and Studiocanal Films Ltd

Also on show will be photography, handwritten lyrics, album sleeve artwork, music videos and excerpts from films and live performances.

Above: David Bowie and William Burroughs, photographed by Terry O’Neill and hand coloured by Bowie (1974) from The David Bowie Archive, courtesy of V&A Images

The exhibition opens on 23 March and continues until 28 July.

Above: promotional shoot for The Kon-rads photographed by Roy Ainsworth (1963) from The David Bowie Archive, courtesy of V&A Images

Yesterday we reported that graphic design studio Barnbrook defaced a classic Bowie album to create the cover for his forthcoming album, The Next Day.

Above: cut up lyrics for ‘Blackout’ from “Heroes” (1977) from The David Bowie Archive, courtesy of V&A Images

The V&A recently opened its new permanent gallery for furniture, displaying objects from the middle ages to the present day by designers including Charles and Ray Eames and Ron Arad.

Above: self-portrait in pose also adopted for the album cover of “Heroes” (1978) from The David Bowie Archive, courtesy of V&A Images

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Here’s the full press release from the V&A:

David Bowie is

In partnership with Gucci. Sound experience by Sennheiser. 23 March – 28 July 2013

The V&A has been given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive to curate the first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie – one of the most pioneering and influential performers of modern times. David Bowie is (opening next spring), will explore the creative processes of Bowie as a musical innovator and cultural icon, tracing his shifting style and sustained reinvention across five decades.

The V&A’s Theatre and Performance curators, Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh, have selected more than 300 objects that will be brought together for the very first time. They include handwritten lyrics, original costumes, fashion, photography, film, music videos, set designs, Bowie’s own instruments and album artwork. The V&A will take an in-depth look at how David Bowie’s music and radical individualism has both influenced and been influenced by wider movements in art, design and contemporary culture. The exhibition will also demonstrate how he has inspired others to challenge convention and pursue freedom of expression.

The exhibition will explore the broad range of Bowie’s collaborations with artists and designers in the fields of fashion, sound, graphics, theatre, art and film. On display will be more than 60 stage-costumes including Ziggy Stardust bodysuits (1972) designed by Freddie Burretti, Kansai Yamamoto’s flamboyant creations for the Aladdin Sane tour (1973) and the Union Jack coat designed by Bowie and Alexander McQueen for the Earthling album cover (1997). Also on show will be photography by Brian Duffy, Terry O’Neill and Masayoshi Sukita; album sleeve artwork by Guy Peellaert and Edward Bell; visual excerpts from films and live performances including The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and Saturday Night Live (1979); music videos such as Boys Keep Swinging (1979) and Let’s Dance (1983) and set designs created for the Diamond Dogs tour (1974).

Alongside these will be more personal items such as never-before-seen storyboards, handwritten set lists and lyrics as well as some of Bowie’s own sketches, musical scores and diary entries, revealing the evolution of his creative ideas.

Martin Roth, Director of the V&A, said: “David Bowie is a true icon, more relevant to popular culture now than ever. His radical innovations across music, theatre, fashion and style still resound today in design and visual culture and he continues to inspire artists and designers throughout the world. We are thrilled to be presenting the first ever exhibition drawn from the David Bowie Archive.”

Frida Giannini, Gucci Creative Director, said: “David Bowie is… one of my greatest inspirations. His individuality, originality and authenticity have been defining. Through his creative genius his influence on music, fashion, art and popular culture over decades has been immeasurable and will continue to be for decades to come.”

Exhibition Overview

The exhibition will offer insight into Bowie’s early years and his first steps towards musical success. Tracing the creative aspirations of the young David Robert Jones (born 1947 in Brixton, London), it will show how he was inspired by innovations in art, theatre, music, technology and youth culture in Britain in the aftermath of the Second World War. Pursuing a professional career in music and acting, he officially adopted the stage name ‘David Bowie’ in 1965 and went through a series of self-styled changes from Mod to mime artist and folk singer to R&B musician in anticipation of the shifting nature of his later career. On display will be early photographs, LPs from his musical heroes such as Little Richard, and Bowie’s sketches for stage sets and costumes created for his bands The Kon-rads and The King Bees in the 1960s. This opening section will conclude with a focus on Bowie’s first major hit Space Oddity (1969) and the introduction of the fictional character Major Tom, who would be revisited by Bowie in both Ashes to Ashes (1980) and Hallo Spaceboy (1995). Inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the single was released to coincide with the first moon landing and was Bowie’s breakthrough moment, granting him critical and commercial success as an established solo artist.

The exhibition will move on to examine David Bowie’s creative processes from song writing, recording and producing to designing costumes, stage sets and album artwork. Working within both established art forms and new artistic movements, this section will reveal the scope of his inspirations and cultural references from Surrealism, Brechtian theatre and avant-garde mime to West End musicals, German Expressionism and Japanese Kabuki performance. On show will be some of Bowie’s own musical instruments, footage and photography of recording sessions for Outside (1995) and ‘Hours…’ (1999) as well as handwritten lyrics and word collages inspired by William Burroughs’ ‘cut up’ method of writing that have never previously been publicly displayed.

David Bowie is will chronicle his innovative approach to creating albums and touring shows around fictionalised stage personas and narratives. 1972 marked the birth of his most famous creation; Ziggy Stardust, a human manifestation of an alien being. Ziggy’s daringly androgynous and otherworldly appearance has had a powerful and continuous influence on pop culture, signalling a challenge of social traditions and inspiring people to shape their own identities. On display will be the original multi-coloured suit worn for the pivotal performance of Starman on Top of the Pops in July 1972, as well as outfits designed for stage characters Aladdin Sane and The Thin White Duke. Costumes from The 1980 Floor Show (1973), album cover sleeves for The Man Who Sold the World (1970) and Hunky Dory (1971), alongside press cuttings and fan material, will highlight Bowie’s fluid stylistic transformations and his impact on social mobility and gay liberation.

The final section will celebrate David Bowie as a pioneering performer both on stage and in film, concentrating on key performances throughout his career. An immersive audio-visual space will present dramatic projections of some of Bowie’s most ambitious music videos including DJ (1979) and The Hearts Filthy Lesson (1995), as well as recently uncovered footage of Bowie performing Jean Genie on Top of the Pops in 1973 and D.A. Pennebaker’s film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture (1973). A separate screening room will show excerpts and props from Bowie’s feature films such as Labyrinth (1986) and Basquiat (1996).

In addition, this gallery will trace the evolution of the lavishly produced Diamond Dogs tour (1974), the design of which was inspired by Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis (1927) and George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). The tour combined exuberant choreography and a colossal set design, taking the combination of rock music and theatre to new heights. On display will be previously unseen tour footage and storyboards for the proposed musical that Bowie would eventually transform into the Diamond Dogs album and touring show. An area will also be dedicated to the monochrome theatricality of Bowie’s Berlin period and the creation of the stylish Thin White Duke persona identified with the Station to Station album and tour (1976). It will also investigate the series of experimental and pioneering records he produced between 1977 and 1979 whilst living in Germany, known as the Berlin Trilogy.
David Bowie is will conclude with a display of striking performance and fashion photography taken by photographers including Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts and John Rowlands. These professional portraits will be juxtaposed with a collage of visual projections illustrating Bowie’s immense creative influence and ubiquitous presence in music, fashion and contemporary visual and virtual culture.

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The illusory shadows of burning candles and unexpected assemblages of decrepit furniture make up the latest collection by British designers JamesPlumb.

Above: photograph by Gisela Torres, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects

Hannah Plumb and James Russell, who work together as JamesPlumb, created the To Have and To Hold collection from discarded and broken antiques.

Above: photograph by Gisela Torres, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects

Included in the collection is a nineteenth century chandelier shown alongside a moving image of its silhouette.

Above: photograph by Gisela Torres, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects

“The talking point was the beauty of the shadow,” James Russell told Dezeen, explaining that they wanted to show the shadows of candle smoke without using bright lights, which would have destroyed the candlelit atmosphere.

Instead, they recorded the chandelier burning overnight and then projected the video alongside it in the chapel of St. Barnabas.

“None of our shows are in typical white cube spaces,” said Russell. “We love to evoke an atmosphere.”

The collection also includes assemblages such as an eighteenth century wing chair combined with church pew seats to create a long bench, and a Victorian pulpit repurposed as a cocooned reading room.

Document boxes with mirrored tin linings are raised on steel plinths and illuminated from inside, while a corner cupboard has been transformed into a freestanding upholstered bench.

A dresser from an apothecary and a set of artist’s pigment drawers are extended with steel frames that outline the missing fragments of the original furniture.

Above: photograph by Gisela Torres, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects

“The majority of the work is about vessels or containers, whether for people or objects,” said Russell. “It’s nearly always a broken or incomplete object, one that the antique dealers aren’t drawn to.”

Above: photograph by Gisela Torres, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects

The pieces were exhibited inside the House of St. Barnabas, a former women’s refuge in Soho, during last October’s Frieze art fair. To Have and To Hold was the first exhibition by newly founded “nomadic gallery” Kandasamy Projects.

Other projects by the same designers we’ve featured on Dezeen include antique furniture with cast concrete inserts and an award-winning interior for a fashion boutique in east London – see all our stories about JamesPlumb.

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Photographs are by JamesPlumb, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects, except where stated.

Above: photograph by Gisela Torres, courtesy of Kandasamy Projects

Here’s some more information from Kandasamy Projects:

Kandasamy Projects is proud to present its inaugural exhibition To Have and To Hold by James Plumb. The installation will showcase a significant new body of work, and marks the designers first solo show with a London gallery.

To Have & To Hold presents the artist’s core ethos – the desire to look again at the overlooked. It is the pieces they find that are the starting point of all their work. With a desire to treat each one preciously, they marry apparently disparate fragments into new assemblages that appear as if they could have always existed.

The site for the exhibition reflects the tone of the works. The House of St. Barnabas was a place of sanctuary in its former life as a women’s refuge. The installation will encompass the on-site Chapel, where a unique lighting piece will be presented. A 19th C chandelier – patinated as if dragged from the ocean floor – is exhibited alongside its own silhouette – a shimmering moving image that brings a unique balance of the analogue and the digital.

The focus on the preciousness of objects is borne out in a new limited edition of sculptural luminaires. A collection of old solicitor’s document boxes have been given their own elegant steel plinths. Illuminated from within, their mirrored tin linings become a home for cherished belongings.

The Monro Room will showcase a new collection of unique assemblages. An old corner cupboard that has been released from its confines and allowed to stand freely in the middle of the room, is transformed into a ‘settle’ that celebrates its distinctive shape. A Victorian pulpit, discovered in a tangled mess of overgrown brambles has had its former purpose for delivering sermons to the masses refocussed to create a one of a kind reading room for the individual. The utilty of the pulpit has been transformed from a platform for public speech to a cocooned space for quiet contemplation.

An 18th C wing chair finds new function as a day bed-come-bench with the addition of oversized church pew seats that project from within. A fragment from an old apothecary dresser, and a pair of old pigment drawers are extended by steel frameworks which reference the other parts now missing and forgotten. An allusion to the fact that their present forms are merely fragments of their former selves – an ethereal reminder of their initial purpose.

Each piece is a study in refined interventions that are designed to elevate but not dominate their subjects.

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by JamesPlumb appeared first on Dezeen.

“Living Room Corner Arranged by Mr. and Mrs. Burton Tremaine, Sr.,” a 1984 photograph by Louise Lawler. (Courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art)

This holiday season, deck the halls with delightful juxtapositions à la Louise Lawler. The artist and photographer was granted full access to the home of 20th-century art collectors Burton and Emily Hall Tremaine in 1984, just a few years before much of their collection was dispersed at Christie’s. Armed with only a 35mm camera and a sharp eye, Lawler captured pairings such as a Jackson Pollock canvas and an elaborately decorated soup tureen, and this living room scene, in which a Roy Lichtenstein sculpture-turned-lamp appears to grab the attention of Stevie Wonder, all under the watchful eye of a Robert Delaunay disque painting. The festive trio goes on view tomorrow at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of an exhibition of photographs from its permanent collection.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A car from Normal Bel Geddes’ “Futurama” exhibit at the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair and the designer exiting a Chrysler Airflow car.

The interdiscliplinary types of today have nothing on Norman Bel Geddes (1893–1958), who designed everything from stage sets and costumes to buildings and streamlined “motor cars” that resembled elongated teardrops with wheels (tail fins optional). The life and career of the self-taught polymath, who straddled the line between visionary and pragmatist, is the subject of Norman Bel Geddes Designs America, published by Abrams in conjunction with a major exhibition now on view at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. It will travel to the Museum of the City of New York early next year. We asked design historian Russell Flinchum, author of Henry Dreyfuss, Industrial Designer: The Man in the Brown Suit, to give us his take on the new Bel Geddes bible in advance of the show’s arrival in Gotham.

New Yorkers have an exceptional chance to immerse themselves in modernity’s past at the Museum of the City of New York, which last week opened “Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s,” an exhibition that originated at the National Building Museum in 2011. Following relatively hot on its heels will be “Norman Bel Geddes Designs America,” from which most of the latter show’s contents have been gleaned. Moving from the earlier exhibition’s overview to the first in-depth look at Geddes should prove instructive, to put it mildly. No single exhibit from the fairs of the ‘30s is better known or more celebrated than Geddes’s “Futurama,” properly the “Highways and Horizons” exhibit for General Motors at the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair. We will finally have a chance to understand exactly what Geddes achieved, and why he merits such curatorial scrutiny.

Donald Albrecht, curator of architecture and design at the Museum of the City of New York, has edited an impressive catalogue that covers Geddes’s output in 17 chapters that carry us from theatrical design through furniture, housing, and graphic design and everywhere in between (perhaps most notably in his three-dimensional designs for Life magazine illustrating the battlefronts of World War II, which merited an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art). The authors of these individual chapters range from UT professor Jeffrey Meikle, whose Twentieth Century Limited of 1977 did more than any single book to focus academic interest on American industrial design of the 1930s, to some of his former students and even current doctoral candidates at Austin.
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Artists and gallerists, here’s the trio you want to make sure is at the top of your holiday card mailing list: (pictured, from left) Stuart Comer, Anthony Elms, and Michelle Grabner, the freshly crowned curators of the 2014 Whitney Biennial. Opening in early March of next year, it will be the seventy-seventh in the Whitney Museum’s ongoing series of Annual and Biennial exhibitions and the last to fill its Marcel Breuer building. The Metropolitan Museum of Art will take over the building in 2015 when the Whitney moves into its new downtown digs designed by Renzo Piano.

The Whitney is looking to leave its Brutalist beacon on a high note, with a new curatorial structure that places the Biennial in the hands of three curators from outside the museum. “By flinging open the museum’s doors metaphorically, we hope to create a platform in which voices from outside the Whitney can enliven the conversation around contemporary art in the United States,” said Donna De Salvo, the Whitney’s chief curator and deputy director for programs, in a statement issued by the museum late yesterday. “Hailing from Chicago, Philadelphia, and London, each curator will bring a personal approach to the process, creating an exciting mix of emerging and established artists that is the Biennial’s hallmark.”
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