Do you know David Bowie? Of course you do. Probably more that I do. This summer was a great opportunity for me to learn a little bit more about the singer but also the man.
Mr. Jones’ Long Hair, David Bowie par David Lawrence is the title of a very beautiful exhibition I was lucky enough to discover over the summer in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence – France.
I am always hesitant between sharing “on the spot” pictures of what I have seen or wait until the exhibit has closed its door to avoid ruining the surprise for anyone who had in mind to attend the event. And for this specific event, as my house was full of guest all summer long, life made the choice for me :-)) so I am sharing it now.
I am not a huge connoisseur of David Bowie’s work per se, beside the songs that you can hear on the radio. I, however, remember the earthquake in the musical world the day he died January 10 2016.
“Once you lose that sense of wonder at being alive, you’re pretty much on the way out.” David Bowie
But back to the exhibit : for that event, the writer David Lawrence give an imaginary voice to David’s older half-brother Terry Burns. Terry took in own life at the age of 47 and struggled his entire life with schizophrenia. But he was also a guide. He introduced him to jazz, African-American music, modernist poets, and marginal literary figures—from T.S. Eliot to William S. Burroughs, from Jean Genet to Jack Kerouac.
Can I say that I know him better now?
The answer to this question is yes : a little bit in a sense that through the photos, text, music, beyond the singer/actor, I discovered the son, the brother, the reader, the ultra photogenic man that keeps still a part of mystery.
And you? Do you love David Bowie?
