Bizarrely, while enjoying the fruits of the endlessly creative third act of his musical career, Bowie played Warhol. Thats two of the worlds greatest pop culture and artistic icons; its the high culture equivalent of Lady Gaga playing Princess Di. You could call it utterly peculiar and you could call it completely appropriate and youd be right both times. Julian Schnabels lyrical tribute to the graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat came at a time when Bowie was entering a reflective middle-age, having absorbed himself in the esoterica of electronic music for the past few years after a period subsumed in facile pop and stadium rock. He plays Warhol beautifully (in one of the artists own wigs), taking on tics and vocal mannerisms that clearly came from personal observation, not the cultural lexicon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG1QMIhmnC0 But this isnt Pilate, or Tesla. This is one of the most recognisable men in the world, being played by one of the most recognisable men in the world. Theres no way of hiding that, and never could be, so instead Bowie embraces it. Just as there was a deliberately arch, knowing element to the casting, so there is to the subsequent performance: alien playing alien, artist playing artist, Bowie acknowledging his creative debt to Warhol as he represented his artistic sentiment on screen, nearly a decade after his death.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
