In 1969 David Bowie was a key founding member of the Beckenham Arts Laboratory. This became a meeting point for music, poetry, mime, theatre, visual art and cultural ideas, promoting collaboration over competition. Between 1969 and 1973 The Beckenham Arts Lab was a crucible for artistic talent and the launch pad for David Bowie’s rise to stardom.
in 2013 Keith Sparrow, artist, writer, and actor, brought together a talented group of artists, musicians, dancers and performers to create a stage show based on the concepts of the Beckenham Arts Laboratory. He called it ‘The Bowie Lounge’ and the first performance was at the Polytechnic Theatre in Falmouth in 2013.
Over the next 10 years the Bowie Lounge performed in venues around Cornwall and received rave reviews including;
“A strange and wonderful experience, The Bowie Lounge blends music, painting, theatre and dance to create something which is joyful, melancholic and really rather moving. I absolutely loved it.” – Mark Kermode (Film Critic)
“What an extraordinary experience…visually and sonically overpowering and completely unique…still not really sure what I experienced but it and everyone involved was utterly brilliant.” – Mark Jenkin (Bafta award winning Film-maker and Professor of Film Practice at Falmouth University)
the art decade exhibition
Following Bowie’s death in 2016, Keith Sparrow curated a week long exhibition at The Old Bakery in Truro, to celebrate the life and work of David Bowie. He invited local artists and friends, including myself, to fill the, almost derelict, building with art installations. The exhibition culminated in a performance of the Bowie Lounge show.
My installation comprised a painting, soundscape and a film projection onto the painting.
the painting
This 1.6 x 1.6m painting is based on a screen shot taken from Bowie’s 2013 video, Valentines Day, that he released for his album ‘The next day’. I was looking for something that would resonate with the ‘derelict’ nature of the Old Bakery at that time. I produced a large painting in four panels. At the end of the exhibition The Old Bakery asked me if they could have the painting on loan and then installed it in the entrance.
8 years later Keith Sparrow visited the Old Bakery and had this photo taken of himself in front of the work.
the installation
Setting up the installation
