David Bowie is

Blockbuster exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the life and work of David Bowie which and unprecedented access to his archives.

I must admit I came out of this exhibition a bit confused. It was a sumptuously arranged show particularly the latter half which showcased his stage costumes.  I loved the high ceilinged room with floor to ceiling screens showing film of live performances with costumes in front of them. I suspect most of the people in the exhibition at any given time are standing mesmerized in that room.  I would gripe though that there were also costumes behind the screens which you just got glimpses of. It would have been nice to see them properly.

Another gripe was the tape tour. It was an innovative idea to set off sounds and commentary as you walked round but it didn’t always work at the pace you had to walk round. I am still recovering from half an hour of repetitive snippets of Gilbert and George singing “Underneath the Arches”. Once was interesting twenty plus times not so!

However much as this was a visually stunning and innovative exhibition quite early on I did start to consider whether Bowie was a genius or whether it was all pretentious nonsense. I am afraid the verbalizer programme brought me down in the latter camp!

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