![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Damn you Atlantic Ocean
Mar. 21st, 2013 12:44 amDear Sweet Darlings,
So many of our obsessions are represented at museums this year. The academics have analyzed Glam Rock and now the curators have at it. There's a Bowie retrospective at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Glam! The Performance of Style is now at the Tate Liverpool. Stateside we've got Punk: Chaos to Couture at The Metropolitan Museum this summer.
There's a thrill to hear this and then almost immediately a critique of what they will get right and get wrong. Of course this is a highly opinionated and totally subjective topic. The V&A show seems to anticipate that with the title "David Bowie is". As he once said, "I guess I am what the greatest number of people think I am. I have no control over that at all." As the owner of a $500 book about Ziggy Stardust who has never seen Labyrinth, I understand that Bowie fans share a quirky demographic. No matter what the exhibition is about, it's damn thrilling to have the new album.
Glam! The Performance of Style seems like it's throwing a very wide net to be able to make it about ART rather than NME. The curator, Darren Pih, certainly has read "Please Kill Me," and includes the Max's Kansas City/ Warhol scene as the beginning part of the story. And while several films are included in the show, as well as screenings of others, there's apparently not a mention of Velvet Goldmine, which certainly was a landmark in the reassessment and appreciation of the Glam era, in particular noting the origins of glam in the drag, underground and art school scenes. We can't imagine the curator hasn't seen it.
vardathemessage started on the fifth anniversary of the VHS release of Velvet Goldmine*. At that time it was difficult to find links to illustrate and illuminate the entries - Wikipedia was just emerging, Tumblr was lightyears away in internet time - and you can see that it still has some not so fab images, sorry. Now that VG love is all over the internet, let's not forget that in many ways Todd Haynes rediscovered the era and put it back on the cultural map as something more than a punchline. Glam was out of fashion in 1998 - this was the year Madonna was wearing cowboy boots afterall, and even Bowie was chuckling as David Letterman mocked a photo of Ziggy Stardust. Now that TRAFOZSATSFM is 40, Bowie has a new album and a retrospective at the V&A, it's hard to believe that for a very long time Bowie was considered a weirdo rather than a pioneering artist. And even then, when he was at the height of his fame during the 80s, many considered Ziggy just a slightly embarrassing best ignored experiment of his early career.
Being on the wrong side of the pond, I won't be able to see the V&A and Tate shows, so those of you who have seen them, please free free to give us your take. And certainly correct me if I'm wrong about the Glam! exhibition having no mention of Velvet Goldmine.
*To give you an idea of how ancient history that is, the VHS was available for $125.00! This is because the first buyers of the VHS were the rental shops who were expected to recoup the cost in rentals. So the next best thing was later that summer when the used copies of VG were put on sale for something like $14.99.
So many of our obsessions are represented at museums this year. The academics have analyzed Glam Rock and now the curators have at it. There's a Bowie retrospective at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Glam! The Performance of Style is now at the Tate Liverpool. Stateside we've got Punk: Chaos to Couture at The Metropolitan Museum this summer.
There's a thrill to hear this and then almost immediately a critique of what they will get right and get wrong. Of course this is a highly opinionated and totally subjective topic. The V&A show seems to anticipate that with the title "David Bowie is". As he once said, "I guess I am what the greatest number of people think I am. I have no control over that at all." As the owner of a $500 book about Ziggy Stardust who has never seen Labyrinth, I understand that Bowie fans share a quirky demographic. No matter what the exhibition is about, it's damn thrilling to have the new album.
Glam! The Performance of Style seems like it's throwing a very wide net to be able to make it about ART rather than NME. The curator, Darren Pih, certainly has read "Please Kill Me," and includes the Max's Kansas City/ Warhol scene as the beginning part of the story. And while several films are included in the show, as well as screenings of others, there's apparently not a mention of Velvet Goldmine, which certainly was a landmark in the reassessment and appreciation of the Glam era, in particular noting the origins of glam in the drag, underground and art school scenes. We can't imagine the curator hasn't seen it.
vardathemessage started on the fifth anniversary of the VHS release of Velvet Goldmine*. At that time it was difficult to find links to illustrate and illuminate the entries - Wikipedia was just emerging, Tumblr was lightyears away in internet time - and you can see that it still has some not so fab images, sorry. Now that VG love is all over the internet, let's not forget that in many ways Todd Haynes rediscovered the era and put it back on the cultural map as something more than a punchline. Glam was out of fashion in 1998 - this was the year Madonna was wearing cowboy boots afterall, and even Bowie was chuckling as David Letterman mocked a photo of Ziggy Stardust. Now that TRAFOZSATSFM is 40, Bowie has a new album and a retrospective at the V&A, it's hard to believe that for a very long time Bowie was considered a weirdo rather than a pioneering artist. And even then, when he was at the height of his fame during the 80s, many considered Ziggy just a slightly embarrassing best ignored experiment of his early career.
Being on the wrong side of the pond, I won't be able to see the V&A and Tate shows, so those of you who have seen them, please free free to give us your take. And certainly correct me if I'm wrong about the Glam! exhibition having no mention of Velvet Goldmine.
*To give you an idea of how ancient history that is, the VHS was available for $125.00! This is because the first buyers of the VHS were the rental shops who were expected to recoup the cost in rentals. So the next best thing was later that summer when the used copies of VG were put on sale for something like $14.99.
