“It’s a Drive-In Saturday”
For those of you in Chicago to see the David Bowie Is exhibition, you may want to tie in a trip to the Ed Pashcke Art Center where the current exhibition is Steve Schapiro: Warhol, Reed, & Bowie.
The photographer spoke to Chicagoist about the exhibition recently. Here’s an edited extract from the article regarding Bowie.
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CHICAGOIST: You're a great observer of humanity, even with iconic, larger-then-life figures like Bowie. I am thinking specifically of the Bowie photograph from The Man Who Fell to Earth, one of the highlights of the show. This was printed at the last minute for this exhibit, correct? There is a sombreness and vulnerability in this work while it is magical.
STEVE SCHAPIRO: It's an image that was never printed till about two weeks before the show. I looked at that transparency and realized it is a really good picture, and it was only when I thought we needed another Bowie picture to round out the exhibit that I went back and looked at the transparencies and I found this image. It had never been edited or printed. It is entirely untouched.
CHICAGOIST: Do you find when you are photographing a performer like Bowie, a quintessential performer and artist, I am thinking, like you were saying, he was very aware he was being photographed, but he also seemed to put his guard down for you. Can you talk about that?
STEVE SCHAPIRO: I think Bowie is very smart and I think he has a great sense of images and in coming up with new kinds of images. The first session I did with him started at four in the afternoon and ended at four the next morning when I did that picture of him on the motorcycle, and we used the headlights of a car to light it. He would constantly come up with new costumes and I would pick up my camera to photograph him and it would be an incredible outfit, but he would stop me and say, "Wait a minute, I need to fix something," and he would go to the dressing room and come back 20 minutes later in something totally different. Fortunately, there would be a lot of things he would try on, so we would get a lot of pictures. The picture of him smoking a cigarette was a cover of Rolling Stone and it has been used a lot, but it was originally the cover for Rolling Stone.
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You can read the full thing on the Chicagoist site, where there are also links to the Steve Schapiro: Warhol, Reed, & Bowie Exhibition.
Speaking of The Man Who Fell to Earth, if you’re in Chicago over the weekend to see David Bowie Is, you may also want to attend the Bowie Film Festival while you’re at the MCA.
You are also encouraged to attend the film festival as a character played by Bowie in one of the films. TJ Newton the thirsty alien disguised as a human, Jareth the child-snatching Goblin King, friend of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, or the star of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars himself.
We’ll leave you with the full schedule, which kicks off with Basquiat on Saturday at 1:00pm.
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Join the MCA for a weekend that celebrates some of David Bowie’s greatest moments on the silver screen: from cult classics like Labyrinth (1986) and The Hunger (1983) to Bowie’s notable performances in films such as The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and his portrayal of Andy Warhol in Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat (1996). All screenings take place in the Edlis Neeson Theater.
Come as the Goblin King, Warhol, or the vampire John Blaylock: visitors are invited to dress up in Bowie-inspired attire for this event. Tag #DavidBowieIs on your photos.
Schedule
Saturday
1 pm: Basquiat
Directed by Julian Schnabel, 1996, USA
108 minutes
Basquiat tells the story of the meteoric rise and fall of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Basquiat starts out as SAMO—a graffiti artist living in a cardboard box in Thompkins Square Park—before he is “discovered” by Andy Warhol, and the New York art world quickly makes him a star. Success, however, has a high price, and Basquiat pays with friendship, love, and eventually, his life.
3 pm: David Bowie 5 Years
Directed by Francis Whately, 2013, UK
59 minutes
Featuring a wealth of unseen footage and thoughtful interviews, this documentary highlights five key years in David Bowie’s music career and charts his continual evolution through the various roles that make him an icon of our times.
4:15 pm: The Man Who Fell To Earth
Directed by Nicolas Roeg, 1976, the Netherlands
139 minutes
Seeking help for his drought-stricken planet, a space alien crash-lands on Earth and becomes a fabulously wealthy industrialist. In his quest to build a return spacecraft, however, money and its attendant decadence ultimately exert a stronger gravitational pull.
6:30–7:30 pm GO GLAM!
Get your very own lightning bolt with our Bowie make-up artists!
7:30 pm: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Directed by D. A. Pennebaker, 1973, UK
90 minutes
The July 3, 1973 historic concert of the “leper Messiah” was to be David Bowie’s last concert with his Ziggy persona and the Spiders from Mars. A great medley of “Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud”/“All The Young Dudes”/“Oh! You Pretty Things” and covers of The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones are but some of the highlights.
9 pm: The Hunger
Directed by Tony Scott, 1983, USA
97 minutes
Miriam, a centuries-old vampire, preys on urban clubgoers with her vampire lover John. When John suddenly begins to age rapidly and waste away, Miriam casts a spell upon Sarah Roberts, a doctor who researches premature aging.
Sunday
Noon: Labyrinth
Directed by Jim Henson, 1986, USA
101 minutes
Fifteen-year-old Sarah accidentally wishes her baby stepbrother, Toby, away to the Goblin King. Jareth, King of the Goblins, threatens to keep Toby and turn him into a goblin if Sarah cannot complete his ever-changing Labyrinth in thirteen hours.
2:30 pm: Absolute Beginners
Directed by Julien Temple, 1986, USA
108 minutes
In this musical adaptation of Colin MacInnes’s novel about life in late-1950s London, nineteen-year-old Colin is hopelessly in love with Crepe Suzette, a model whose relationships are strictly connected to her progress in the fashion world. In order to earn her love, Colin gets involved with a pop promoter and tries to crack the big time, but he finds his new life moves further away from his ideals and Suzette.