David Bowie: five must-have items for the V&A’s new centre

David Bowie: Five Must-Have Items for the V&A’s New Centre

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has announced the opening of a new David Bowie Centre for the Performing Arts in 2025 at V&A East Storehouse in east London. This follows the news that the museum has acquired, through donation, the artist’s fabled archive. This collection of over 80,000 objects formed the basis of the museum’s 2013 exhibition David Bowie Is. It includes personal correspondence, lyric sheets, photographs, costumes, set designs, music awards, films, album artwork, instruments, and plans for unrealised projects.

1. Jockstrap

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During the 1973 Ziggy Stardust tour, Masayoshi Sukita photographed a near-naked Bowie performing before a joyously crazed Japanese crowd, wearing only a jockstrap. This piece of athletic kit, so evocative of sport’s homosocial energies and of working-class culture, creates an irreverent tension with the androgyny and strangeness of the costumes fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto created for that same tour.

2. The 1973 Hammersmith Odeon Dressing Table

In Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture, the 1973 Donn Alan Pennebaker documentary about Bowie’s final Ziggy gig, we see the artist preparing for the stage. As he sits in front of a mirrored dressing table, his makeup artist applies rouge, eyeshadow, and eyeliner, transforming him from a pallid young man into a feminine icon. I’d like the new centre to recreate the dressing table: the two bottles of wine (one opened), the white plastic cups, the boxes of tissues, the large tin of hairspray, the container of Johnson & Johnson baby powder, the well-used green ashtray.

3. Bowie’s Copy of George Orwell’s 1984 – and Other Books

One installation in the 2013 V&A show featured a faceless mannequin with outstretched arms, high, high up in the space. It was draped in a cloak designed by Yamamoto in 1973, a white floor-length garment, made in the Japanese hikinuki tradition and designed to be ripped off in a speedy onstage costume change. It is covered in red and black kanji which translate as "one who spits out words in a fiery manner." Suspended around it in the V&A, like so many birds in flight, were 20-odd books from Bowie’s personal library by authors including RD Laing, Vladimir Nabokov, and Hubert Selby Jr.

4. The Hedi Slimane Three-Piece Suit – and Other Blue Suits

On 1977’s Sound and Vision, Bowie famously sang: "Blue, blue, electric blue / That’s the colour of my room." This sentiment chimes with the filmmaker, Derek Jarman’s own take on the colour (in Chroma: A Book of Colour): "Blue, an open door to the soul / An infinite possibility / Becoming tangible." Bowie greatly admired Jarman, an extract of whose film, Blue, was played during the pre-show music for the 1995 Outside tour. Like Jarman, Bowie loved the colour blue, maybe, in part, because he knew how good he looked in it.

5. The White Supro Guitar – and Other Instruments

One of the most compelling photographs in the David Bowie Is catalogue is of the white Supro 1961 Dual Tone electric guitar that Bowie played on his final tour, in support of the 2003 Reality album. The image remains emblematic of Bowie’s dogged commitment to the possibilities, and actual making of music. Other instruments of note would include the 12-string acoustic guitar he turned to throughout his career; the Japanese koto he plays on the 1977 track Moss Garden; the saxophone he had played since he was a teenager; and the harmonicas that followed him from 1969’s song Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed to 2016’s I Can’t Give Everything Away, the final track on Blackstar, his final album.

Conclusion

The new David Bowie Centre for the Performing Arts will be a treasure trove of Bowie’s creative output, showcasing his iconic costumes, instruments, and personal effects. These five must-have items will provide a glimpse into Bowie’s creative process, his artistic inspirations, and his enduring influence on popular culture.

FAQs

Q: What is the David Bowie Centre for the Performing Arts?
A: The David Bowie Centre for the Performing Arts is a new exhibition space at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, dedicated to the life and work of David Bowie.

Q: What items will be on display at the centre?
A: The centre will feature a selection of Bowie’s iconic costumes, instruments, and personal effects, including his jockstrap, dressing table, books, blue suits, and white Supro guitar.

Q: Why is the David Bowie Centre important?
A: The centre will provide a unique insight into Bowie’s creative process and artistic inspirations, and will cement his status as a cultural icon.

Q: When will the David Bowie Centre open?
A: The centre will open in 2025 at V&A East Storehouse in east London.

Q: What can visitors expect to see at the centre?
A: Visitors can expect to see a curated selection of Bowie’s most iconic and influential works, including costumes, instruments, and personal effects, as well as interactive exhibits and installations that showcase his creative process and artistic inspirations.