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BAMBER DELVER; The Legacy of Leigh Bowery honouring 80s/90s designer & performance artist

Bamber Delver

54m 5s
First published: September 1, 2023

Dutch journalist Bamber Delver's book ‘The legacy of Leigh Bowery, king of queer’, looks at the the career of this outrageous shapeshifter of the 80’s/90’s.

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Decades after his passing, Leigh Bowery’s influence is omnipresent. From Alexander McQueen to Cirque du Soleil, from Lady Gaga to the drag queens of RuPaul. In this book 15 artists (inc. Le Pustra, Trevor Messersmith, Paola Idrontino, Luis Peralta, Saskia Kemperman, The Huxleys, Kat Joplin and Venus Envy) from around the globe admire his guts, his looks and fashion-philosophy which is nowadays called ‘queer’: no boundaries, no gender, no age, no sexuality, no restrictions of the human-form. Ann Holt, with whom Leigh travelled to London at 17, shares her memories. Leigh's sister Brownyn tells about her childhood with Leigh.

Also in the book is an interview from 1989 where Bamber interviewed the artist Leigh Bowery, as well as lots of never-seen-before photos of three of Leigh’s creations. The book presents several timelines, of Leigh’s life and afterlife: his legacy. Like the annual Aussie-party Bowerytopia and the theatre named after him: the Bowery Theatre, Australia (native country of Bowery). A variety of performers pay tribute to Leigh, verbally and visually. The book comes in different versions. The hardcover in print is a real treat.

Leigh died in 1994, at just 33, but his creative legacy is bigger than ever. This is the story.

​To order the book - go here - https://www.bamberdelver.nl/shop

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