London seems set to get a new landmark with the announcement yesterday (21 February) of plans to raise a permanent memorial to David Bowie in his Brixton birthplace. It will take the form of a 9m-high steel rendition of the famous blue and red makeup flash from the cover of Bowie’s 1973 Aladdin Sane album.
Called ZiggyZag, the three-storey monolith will be situated directly opposite Brixton Underground Station and beside the existing Bowie mural, which has become an impromptu shrine since his death last year. This ultimate piece of Bowie bling has been designed by Charlie Waterhouse. He is the creative director of This Ain’t Rock’n’Roll, the agency that also designed the award-winning Brixton Pound paper currency, which features Bowie on its B£10 note.
“That image from the cover of Aladdin Sane has become the de facto symbol for David Bowie, who never did the same thing twice,” Waterhouse said at yesterday’s ZiggyZag launch at the Royal Festival Hall in London, where Bowie performed on many occasions. “If anywhere can be crazy enough to have a 9m-high red and blue lightning bolt embedded in the pavement, then it’s got to be Brixton.”
The race is now on to crowdfund just under £1m in 28 days for this striking addition to the south London landscape. Your correspondent (who also happens to be a Brixton resident) sees it as infinitely more appropriate than any attempt to capture this most mutable of musicians in a more conventional portrait sculpture. Apparently the memorial has been developed in full consultation with Bowie’s team in New York and London, and has the support of Lambeth Council. Whether Bowie’s widow Iman, whose Iman cosmetics line can be purchased in Brixton department store Morleys, will be contributing to the campaign is not known.
At the time of writing the pledges are said to be flooding in, as fans—and perhaps family too—are keen to honour one of Brixton’s greatest local heroes.