T List: Celebrating the Artistry of Leigh Bowery at London’s Tate Modern

The performance artist Leigh Bowery packed a lot into his brief life before he died in 1994 from complications related to AIDS at age 33: he was a fashion designer, an art director for music videos, the frontman of a transgressive pop band called Minty and a model for the painter Lucian Freud. He resisted easy categorization, once remarking, “If you label me, you negate me.” Born in a sleepy suburb in Melbourne, Australia, Bowery moved to London in 1980 at 19 and proceeded to reinvent himself on the underground queer club circuit, particularly at Taboo, the renowned nightclub he founded. Using an array of bedazzled masks, bondage gear, wigs and sky-high platforms that further elevated his 6-foot-3 frame, he pushed the limits of transformation — and the norms of the time — through clothing and makeup. Thirty years after his death, his influence can be seen everywhere from the anarchic aesthetics of designers like Rick Owens and Charles Jeffrey to the subversive costumes worn by Lady Gaga. This month, a new retrospective opens at the Tate Modern in London. In a series of themed rooms — home, the club, the stage and the gallery — the show explores Bowery’s art, life and legacy through paintings, photographs, films and interviews with many of his collaborators, including the artist Cerith Wyn Evans, the drag queen Lady Bunny, the DJ Princess Julia and the musician Boy George.