Leigh Bowery: the artist Boy George called “modern art on legs”
Leigh Bowery was a performance artist and all-round aesthetic force almost impossible to sum up. Lucian Freud, a fellow artist and close friend, attempted it with nude portraits. Viewers at Bowery’s shows tried to make sense of what they saw onstage, which was often him effectively giving birth to his wife. Garlands of sausages fashioned into an umbilical cord were often involved. He was outlandish and outrageous, which made him a celebrity of the 1980s club scene and performance art in equal measure. Boy George was said to be fascinated and scared of him, and he summed up his work best by calling him “modern art on legs”.
Funny enough, it was Bowery’s legs that granted him a kind of acceptance in high art circles. While his performances were celebrated by the underground, there was a shocking physicality that obviously clashed with the well-to-do artsy types not invested in London’s club scene. Bowery’s performances often involved his wife Nicola Bateman, who he’d strap to his chest – naked and upside down – and ceremoniously birth her. Others included blood, fire and urine.
Freud encountered him during a more tame performance involving gymnastics more than bodily fluids. He staggered around the room before a two-way mirror, doing high kicks. By this point, Bowery had piqued most of London’s curiosity, and Freud was among the interested and was soon thrilled at what he found – particularly in Bowery’s towering frame, at 17 stone and 6 foot 3. “It’s amazing!” he was said to have remarked. “His calves go straight into his feet!” Bowery was soon sitting nude for him in a series of paintings argued to have been Freud’s best.
Freud decided not to capture Bowery in his usual regalia, with no electric, clown-like makeup or wild outfits. It was a curious choice, given Freud was so drawn to the way he’d bend and manipulate his body – piercing his face to keep masks on and playing up to his size with enormous outfits. “The way he edits his body is amazingly aware and amazingly abandoned,” Freud later said.
Boy George was equally enthralled and eventually penned lyrics and performed as Bowery in the musical based on his infamous club night, Taboo. It was no small feat, given Bowery always seemed to be playing a character by obfuscating himself in bizarre outfits. He once declared his flesh was his “most favourite fabric”. Still, Taboo boldly committed to telling his story, from the raucous partying up to his battle with AIDS.
Bowery, who described himself as a gay man, said his marriage to best friend Nicola Bateman was his most “personal art performance” yet. He was unafraid to be naked, strange and even alarming on stage, but he kept his HIV-positive diagnosis behind closed doors, explaining his public absence by saying he’d gone to Papua New Guinea. He remains an icon of boundless expression whose creative spirit is echoed in the works of everyone from Lady Gaga to John Galliano.
