The Southbank Centre has introduced a raft of occasions celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of David Bowie’s iconic 1973 album, Aladdin Sane. Aladdin Sane: 50 Years will function a two-month lengthy exhibition (6 April – 28 May) exploring the creation of the album’s iconic paintings, together with the legendary lightning flash portrait by photographer Brian Duffy, in addition to a stellar line-up of dwell music and talks impressed by the album.
On the Aladdin Sane celebrations, Southbank Centre Artistic Director Mark Ball, mentioned: “We’re honoured to pay tribute to David Bowie, who made his Southbank Centre debut in 1969. The Aladdin Sane album cowl portrait is taken into account to be one of the crucial influential popular culture photographs of the previous half century, and the music stays contemporary and modern, so we needed to recognise this main anniversary and replicate on the album and its paintings’s enduring legacy. It’s a piece that continues to encourage at this time’s modern artists and the gender fluidity of the photographs nonetheless resonate deeply in queer tradition within the UK and the world over.”
The Aladdin Sane: 50 Years exhibition within the Spirit Level, Royal Festival Hall (6 April – 28 May), will observe the journey of this pioneering portrait, mapping how Bowie’s steady reshaping of his picture paved the best way for audiences to rethink their very own identities. Curated by Chris Duffy, the son of Duffy, and Geoff Marsh, the exhibition will start by spotlighting the colourful music scene of the early Seventies, contextualising the pivotal second during which Bowie and Duffy met. It will go on to discover the distinctive relationship between the musician and photographer, and the January 1973 photoshoot from which the long-lasting Aladdin Sane picture was born.
Of his father’s work, Chris Duffy, mentioned: “My father’s picture of Bowie is commonly known as the Mona Lisa of Pop. It’s necessary to recollect it was the results of a brief studio shoot utilizing movie, which then needed to be despatched out for industrial processing. There had been no instantaneous digital photographs or photoshop then. It’s extraordinary the way it’s lasted and been endlessly reworked. Wherever I’m going on the planet, it’s at all times someplace on a t-shirt.”
The exhibition is complemented by a surprising new e-book by Chris Duffy, Aladdin Sane 50: The definitive celebration of Bowie’s most iconic album and music’s most well-known {photograph} – with unseen photographs, to be launched on 30 March 2023 by Welbeck at £40 hardback.
The Southbank Centre Archive may also current a separate free show exploring David Bowie’s historical past with the Centre, stretching over 50 years, and his ongoing legacy. From his efficiency within the lately opened Purcell Room in 1969, to later performances alongside Lou Reed and his curation of Southbank Centre’s annual modern music competition, Meltdown, by no means earlier than seen archival materials shall be accessible for public view.
Coinciding with the discharge of the album fifty years in the past, music artists pays tribute to Aladdin Sane within the Royal Festival Hall on Friday 21 April. Hosted by the Nu Civilisation Orchestra, Mercury Prize nominee Anna Calvi, Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears together with acclaimed R&B singer Tawiah, Roxanne Tataei, who has collaborated with the likes of Nitin Sawhney and Shabaka Hutchings, and masked pop maestro Lynks will carry out Bowie’s album in full, which incorporates hits akin to ‘The Jean Genie’, ‘Drive in Saturday’ and ‘Lady Grinning Soul’. Meanwhile, within the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, two nights of joyous membership music will rejoice Bowie’s inimitable persona and affect. On Friday 21 April, DJ collective and neighborhood platform Queer House Party will host a jam-packed programme of radical enjoyable, whereas, on Saturday 22 April, Afro-Caribbean impressed Queer Bruk will mix dancehall, afrobeats, soca and extra for an accessible all-out occasion.
Across the weekend, there may also be talks and poetry occasions. In the Purcell Room on Friday 21 April, the National Poetry Library will current Aladdin Sound with ten of the UK’s most fun poets. Taking their cue from the poetic language and potent creativeness of Bowie’s masterpiece, every poet has been commissioned to write down a brand new poem in response to every observe, making a spoken phrase model of the album that shall be introduced dwell on stage. Poets embrace Forward Prize-winner Luke Kennard, Keith Jarrett, Golnoosh Nour and Mark Waldron.
On Saturday 22 April, writer and co-curator of the V&A’s hit exhibition David Bowie Is, Geoffrey Marsh, and Victoria Broackes, co-curator of David Bowie Is and director of the London Design Biennale, will discover the rise of immersive music exhibitions, from the Rolling Stones’ Exhibitionism (2016) to Amy: Beyond the Stage (2021). Meanwhile, Broakes will chair a dialog with Chris Duffy discussing the Aladdin Sane: 50 Years exhibition and the enduring relevance of the album. The day’s talks will shut with writers Paul Burston and Golnoosh Nour on the cultural affect of Bowie’s androgyny and his playful subversion of gender identification.
Tickets for the exhibition, dwell music and talks shall be accessible on Wednesday 1 March, 10:00am by way of https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/festivals-series/aladdin-sane-50-years
Stretching over fifty years, David Bowie and the Southbank Centre have had a storied previous. Bowie made his Southbank Centre debut in 1969 within the lately opened Purcell Room when it price as little as 5 shillings to see him carry out ‘Space Oddity’. Three years later, Bowie headlined the Royal Festival Hall for a particular Save the Whale profit gig, together with a visitor look from Lou Reed. In 2002, David Bowie curated the Southbank Centre’s annual modern music competition, Meltdown, which featured performances from The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, The Divine Comedy, Phillip Glass, Suede and a fledgling Yeah Yeah Yeahs. After a warm-up DJ set by TV host Jonathan Ross, Bowie closed out the competition by taking part in his 1977 album Low in its entirety for the very first time earlier than giving the identical therapy to his then lately launched Heathen.
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