Leigh Bowery

Leigh Bowery (26 March 1961 – 31 December 1994) was an Australian performance artist, club promoter, and fashion designer.

Bowery was known for his conceptual, flamboyant, and outlandish costumes and makeup, as well as his (sometimes controversial) live performances.

Based in London for much of his adult life, he was a significant model and muse for the English painter Lucian Freud.

Bowery's friend and fellow performer Boy George said he saw Bowery's outrageous performances a number of times, and that it "never ceased to impress or revolt".

Bowery was born and raised in Sunshine, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

From an early age, he studied music, played piano, and went on to study fashion and design at RMIT for a year.

He moved to London in 1980, saying, "I was so itchy to see new things and to see the world, that I just left."

Once in England, he soon became part of the London club scene.

He quickly became an influential and lively figure in the underground clubs of London, and New York, as well as in art and fashion circles.

He attracted attention by wearing wildly outlandish and creative outfits during the day and at nighttime, which he made himself.

He became friends and flatmates with artist Gary Barnes (known as "Trojan") and David Walls.

Bowery created costumes for them to wear, and the trio became known in the clubs as "The Three Kings".

He often appeared in magazines and on television, including commercials for Pepe Jeans and Rifat Ozbek.

He was known as a club promoter, and created the club Taboo at Maximus in Leicester Square with promoter Tony Gordon in 1985.

Taboo soon became "the place to be" with long queues for those waiting to get in.

Drugs, particularly ecstasy, became a part of the dancing scene for the attendees.

The club was known for defying sexual convention, for embracing "polysexualism", for creating a wild atmosphere and for playing unexpected song selections.

The DJ's were Jeffrey Hinton, Rachel Auburn and Mark Lawrence.

Regular guests include Boy George, George Michael, John Galliano, Judy Blame, Bodymap, Michael Clark, John Maybury, Cerith Wyn Evans.

Taboo only lasted 18 months and closed in 1986.

As a fashion designer, Bowery had several shows exhibiting his collections in London, New York and Tokyo.

He has influenced several designers and artists, and was known for wildly creative costumes, makeup, wigs and headgear, all of which combined to be striking and often kitschy.

He also designed costumes for the Michael Clark Dance Company.

When that company performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1987, Bowery won a Bessie Award for his work on No Fire Escape in Hell.

As a performance artist he enjoyed creating the costumes, and often shocking audiences.

Working alongside Michael Clark he would often have solo scenes in many of Clark's shows.

His first one-man installation was in 1988 for a week at the Anthony d'Offay Gallery in London.

In 1990 at the London club night 'Kinky Gerlinky' he introduced his signature 'Birthing' performance.

Dressed as the drag performer Divine from 'Female Trouble' he appeared on stage in an oversized t-shirt, dark glasses and headscarf, looking huge and miming along to the film dialogue.

Then suddenly, much to the audience's surprise, he drops onto his back and simulate 'giving birth' to his baby, a petite and naked young woman who was his friend, assistant and later wife Nicola Bateman.

She had been hidden for the first part of the performance by being strapped to Leigh's belly with her face in his crotch.

Then she would slip out of her harness and appear to pop out of Bowery's belly, bursting through his tights, along with a lot of stage blood and links of sausages, while Bowery wailed.

Bowery would then bite off the umbilical cord, hug his 'new' baby and the two would take a bow.

Boy George said he saw it a number of times, and that it "never ceased to impress or revolt".

Bowery would go on to use this birthing performance during his live shows with Minty, with additional vomit in cups and urine involved.

In 2005, The National Portrait Gallery of Australia acquired a portrait of Bowery, in his infamous fur coat, by photographer David Gwinnutt.

In 2007, The National Portrait Gallery, London purchased Gwinnutt's portrait of Bowery and Trojan (Barnes), which also appears in the Violette Editions book.

Hidden behind a two way mirror he would lay on a 19th Century divan, primping and preening himself at his own reflection, while the audience would watch sat on the floor from the other side.

Each day he changed costumes and so visitors would often came back to see what he would be wearing next.

Various traffic sounds would be played over the speaker system during the performance and there was a different smell everyday including bananas.