David Bowie: You’re Not Alone at Lightroom King’s Cross

It’s already been a decade since the passing of David Bowie, and the artist’s boundless creativity and massively influential craft still feel as if they are waiting to be discovered and rediscovered each day anew. The latest immersive exhibition at the Lightroom in King’s Cross aims to celebrate the songwriter through a captivating visual and sonic journey into his life and work. The one-hour show – reproduced on a loop and drawing on rarely seen material from the David Bowie Archive in New York – presents a narration in Bowie’s own voice, alongside music composed of tracks newly reconfigured by Olivier and Tony Award-winning sound designer Gareth Fry, pumping through the space’s audio system. Behind the writing and direction of the film are 59’s Mark Grimmer (creative director for the V&A’s 2013 David Bowie Is exhibition) and Tom Wexler. It creates an all-encompassing atmosphere of energy, colour, and admiration.

The show begins with a 1973 clip of Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide: red hair, net shirt, Bowie sings to an adulating crowd at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. “You’re not alone,” Ziggy Stardust declares through the lyrics – a theme of loneliness that will be reprised at the end of the loop, in a touching crescendo that brings this introspective journey to an absorbing closure. The film is structured in thematic chapters that loosely follow a chronological order – “Curiosity”, for example, traces Bowie’s original creativity, that insatiable thirst for polyedric interests that characterised him since childhood – though it is not constrained by any strict timeline, occasionally picking and mixing as the topics allow.

“The Outsider Art” section features Mick Rock’s 1972 Space Oddity video; however, as it reaches the chorus, a collage assembles visuals from later performances, culminating in an overlap of voices from a 1990 concert – a brilliant showcase of the transformation in Bowie’s vocal range, as much as of his ever-changing appearances. The sequences “Songwriting” and “Rock’n’Roll Theatre” put the spotlight on the strong narrative element Bowie injected into everything he did: “I am a writer,” he states, first and foremost, and from that writing emerged the stories he created, lyrics rich in meaning (mystifying yet accessible, and directly connecting to human emotions), stories that gave rise to works such as Rainbow Theatre and Diamond Dogs. In the chapter “Changes”, Bowie acknowledges that the time has come to open up to a wider public, not only a cult audience, and just as 1977’s Heroes allowed him to bid farewell to the 70s, Let’s Dance became the opening act for the 80s. The segment “Spirituality” is a brief nod to the singer’s reflections on otherworldliness, his connection to Buddhism, and that recurring question “What’s my relationship with the universe?” which, in Bowie’s words, is an essential query every artist continually faces.

The projections unfold across the four large walls of the Lightroom space, making use, from time to time, of the carpeted floor as an additional surface for animated clips. Much of the movement and the dynamic transitions are achieved by overlaying cut-outs and juxtaposing pop-up windows (which evolve into actual computer windows in the scenes about the advent of the internet). For some of the most iconic hits, such as Rebel Rebel or Changes, the windows expand to take up most, if not all, of the screen, and the exhibition’s cubic space takes on the atmosphere of a concert hall, with close-ups of the crowd appearing alongside the visitors.

David Bowie: You’re Not Alone doesn’t provide a wholly comprehensive picture of the Thin White Duke, but a glimpse into the multifaceted universe of his spirit, and an exciting exploration of how he metamorphosed through various stages, while always retaining the unyielding originality that has made him the myth we remember today.