2018 in Review: Bowie Days, Part 2

Hi everyone,

When it comes to David Bowie, I apparently can't say enough. Read Bowie Days, Part 1, to learn about the David Bowie is exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, which I visited last summer. Read on to hear about a behind-the-scenes lecture by exhibition curator Matthew Yokobosky, who made the exhibition unforgettable.

David Bowie Is: Celebrating an Artist of Startling Transformations, Smithsonian Associates, Ripley Center, July 20, 2018 

Photo: Greg Gorman (1982)

Several people who attended the David Bowie Is: Celebrating an Artist of Startling Transformations lecture by the Brooklyn Museum's Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture Matthew Yokobosky had not visited the exhibition. (But the people who sat next to me saw it while vacationing in Buenos Aries.) If you want to hear from Mr. Yokobosky himself, you can listen to this interesting pre-lecture preview, the Not Old Better podcast, which gives you more background into David Bowie's life and creative process. 

The lecture also focused on things I never considered before, including: 

• What goes into planning and creating an exhibition, 
• How an exhibition must be tailored to whatever space in which its installed, and
• How much creative freedom a curator has in what and how exhibits are presented. 

 This was fascinating! I suddenly wanted to be a museum curator! 

To prepare for David Bowie is, Mr. Yokobosky traveled to other locations to view the exhibition and figure out how he wanted to present it. For example, in one place, the exhibition opened with a room that covered David Bowie's childhood and what was happening musically and politically at that time. Because the focus wasn't on David Bowie, Mr. Yokobosky decided against opening the Brooklyn Museum's exhibition that way. Instead, he went for an in-your-face approach that I loved. He also got to pick different items from David Bowie's archives that he wanted to feature! Can you imagine? 

Here are some interesting notes from this wonderful presentation:

• David Bowie had archived his items since the 1960s in four different locations around the world – wherever he happened to be closest to at the time. The David Bowie is exhibition opened in 2013 with 400 items. By the time it got to Brooklyn, it had 500 items in a 14,000-square-foot space. 

• The archive warehouses are filled with rows of crates (which made me think of Raiders of the Lost Ark). Each crate is labeled with a Polaroid of its contents. Mr Yokobosky saw one crate with a photo of a giant lighted "W" and asked the managers, "Do you have the other letters?" They did! This is what became the first item visitors saw in the Brooklyn Museum's exhibition, set up behind a glittery iconic costume that screamed David Bowie, the Showman. (Imagine walking up to this with David Bowie music blasting in your ears. It was a fitting welcome to David Bowie is!) 

Photo: Jennifer Picht

• These lighted BOWIE letters were used as a backdrop for the set of shows David Bowie performed in each of New York's boroughs during the New York City Marathon Tour in 2002. For this exhibition, seven of the eight LED lights were covered and the overall brightness was dimmed. 

• One time, when David Bowie was storing a piece of fan art, someone questioned whether it was worth saving, and he responded, "Ours is not to judge; ours is to archive." (I miss this guy's sense of humor.) 

• At one point, David Bowie's waist was 23" to 26", which is why designers loved to dress him and everything looked great. In 2002, Vogue borrowed the suit he wore in the "Life on Mars?" video, and Kate Moss couldn't fit into it. (That's right, Kate Moss!) The magazine staff had to call David Bowie to ask for permission to let out the seams a bit for the photo shoot.

Photo: Nick Knight

• The suits that David Bowie wore in The Man Who Fell to Earth were made by Guns 'n' Roses guitarist Slash's mom, fashion designer and costumier Ola Hudson. 

Photo: Steve Schapiro

• To soundproof the exhibition's concert room, special insulation was used: "It's made of blue jeans and it's reusable and it's flameproof," Mr. Yokobosky explained. "It's fantastic!"

• One of the rooms in the Brooklyn Museum's exhibition displayed a single from each of David Bowie's albums. Mr. Yokobosky bought them all through eBay. 

• Isn't it impressive to think how the Tonight album cover was done before Photoshop existed? David Bowie never shied away from experimenting with new things.  

Tonight

• The star pieces under the big black star on the Blackstar album cover represent how "Bowie" is spelled in stars. (There's a whole alphabet.) Do you see it?

Blackstar

• After the Brooklyn Museum exhibition ended, all of the items – most of which have been traveling from museum to museum for five years – need to be put back into storage "to rest" for five years. Don't worry, you can experience the David Bowie is exhibition virtually through this app!

• There were at least two people in this audience who didn't really know who David Bowie was. I applaud them for coming to learn, even if one lady didn't know how to say his last name and tried to correct how it had been pronounced for the last hour throughout the lecture and Q&A session. I also appreciated how graciously Mr. Yokobosky set her straight. 

• Fans visited the David Bowie is exhibition multiple times, and some even bought museum memberships just for that purpose. Mr. Yokobosky said that everyone he spoke to at the Brooklyn Museum had a different entrance point into David Bowie's career, like Ziggy Stardust, MTV, Labyrinth, or even Blackstar. They came to the exhibition to revel in that era, full of memories of how this artist changed their lives. 

It's still happening. David Bowie is still around and always will be.