David Bowie hasn’t toured Australia since 2004 but though the 66-year-old icon is unlikely to make a live comeback any time soon (we live in hope), fans still have reason to get excited with news that an exhaustive tribute to Bowie’s legacy is headed Down Under.
David Bowie Is, an expansive retrospective exhibit of the musician’s 50 year career, opened at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum last year to coincide with the release of Bowie’s first album in a decade, The Next Day. The exhibit has since travelled its way around the globe, and is now making its way to Melbourne’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in July.
Taking place as part of Melbourne Winter Masterpieces, David Bowie Is will be hosted at ACMI from 16th July through to November, 2015, giving Thin White Duke acolytes and Ziggy Stardust virgins alike plenty of time to experience the exhibition on music’s *second* most influential artist of all time.
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The collection itself delves deep into the archives, gaining unprecedented access to present a wealth of curios and memorabilia; everything from handwritten set lists and lyrics, to sketches, photography, musical scores and diary entries, plus never-before-seen storyboards, set designs, instruments,and an array of over 50 of Bowie’s many fashionable costumes. (He was named history’s best-dressed dontchaknow?)
In conjunction with the exhibition season, ACMI will also curate a selection of special events, talks, film screenings, and live performances dedicated to the fashion, film, and music star’s impact.
Full details are available from ACMI here; tickets go on sale in November and you can pre-register your interest for tickets now.
For those of you grumbling and puzzling over what ACMI – who have hosted exhibitions for Pixar, Dreamworks, Disney, and Tim Burton in the past – has to do with music, we redirect your enquiries to Jareth, the Goblin King.
For its March, 2013 opening at London’s V&A, David Bowie Is became the museum’s fastest-selling event ever, as The Guardian reports, receiving rave reviews and viewed by more than 300,000 people during its run. The exhibition has received similarly successful reception around the world, including seasons in Toronto, São Paulo, Berlin, and Chicago. Alongside Melbourne, Paris and the Netherlands city of Groningen are also set to welcome David Bowie Is.
As for the man himself, Bowie recently set the UK press alight by teasing the possibility of a new album, with word that “more music” was on the way.
As The Independent reports, attending a charity event to raise money for the Terrence Higgins Trust at London’s 12 Bar, the 66-year-old issues a note that read: “This city is even better than the one you were in last year, so remember to dance, dance, dance. And then sit down for a minute, knit something, then get up and run all over the place. Do it. Love on ya. More music soon. David.”
