Most people do not spend a lot of time hanging out inside archives, but the new David Bowie centre at the V&A East Storehouse is attempting to flip this script.
Launched on Saturday, 13 September, the centre contains more than 90,000 items from Bowie’s estate, ranging from stage costumes and instruments to photographs and notebooks.
The Storehouse, a converted hangar once used as the 2012 Olympic broadcasting centre, feels like an IKEA — it allows visitors to browse rotating displays without glass barriers.
But it’s less an exhibition and more a working archive. Through the V&A’s ‘order an object’ service, they can also request to view individual items — from Ziggy Stardust’s jumpsuit to a packet of cigarettes carried on his 1976 tour.
Decades ago, Bowie began not just collecting items from his life, but also archiving them. What’s most striking is the amount of material he saved, starting with a rejection letter from the Beatles’ label Apple Records in 1968.
But it’s also a documentation of his creative process and unrealised projects – he was a unique pop culture figure in that he worked expansively across many different genres and mediums.
Dr Madeleine Haddon, curator at the V&A, said: “Bowie was a pioneering multi-disciplinary creative —musician, actor, writer, performer, and cultural icon – working in a way many young creatives move fluidly across disciplines today.”
In 1996, he became one of the first musicians to release a single online with Telling Lies.
Two years later, he launched BowieNet, an internet service provider offering fans exclusive content, chat rooms and email addresses ending in @davidbowie.com. Bowie himself would use pseudonyms to chat to fans on the site.
He also experimented with technology in his songwriting, commissioning a program called the Verbasizer to generate lyrics for his 1995 concept album Outside.
Nine displays have been curated in collaboration with young people from Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest, ensuring Bowie’s legacy connects with a new generation of Londoners.
The Library of Connections focuses on the relationship between Bowie and his contemporaries, how he’s influenced artists such as Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar.
Shane Bardas, guide at the museum, spoke about Bowie’s unique appeal.
He said: “He followed his own curiosity and permitted others to do so. I think that’s why people had such a deep emotional attachment to him.
“I’m not kidding, on the opening day, we had people crying.”
The David Bowie Centre is open now at the V&A East Storehouse, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford. Admission is free, though booking is advised.
Featured Image Credit: Charlotte Lang
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