A Bowie-Themed Art Installation at Locust Projects is About More than Music

“Blackstar 16/25/60” is the third in a trilogy of art installations by Tomas Vu inspired by David Bowie currently on exhibition at Locust Projects in Little River through Saturday, July 19. (Photo by Pedro Wazzan, courtesy of Locust Projects)

Few artists can claim as much cultural influence as David Bowie.

The legendary rock star constantly reinvented himself across a career that spanned decades and personas. He was Ziggy Stardust, the Martian that gave glam rock to the world with songs like “Starman” and “Moonage Daydream.” Then he became the Thin White Duke and redefined blue-eyed soul on the LP “Station to Station.” After that came the experimental Berlin period that produced “Low” and “Heroes,” the ‘80s pop era of “Let’s Dance” and “Modern Love,” and he even tried drum and bass in the ‘90s.

Artist Tomas Vu listened to David Bowie throughout his childhood in wartime Vietnam and his adolescence in El Paso, Texas, drawing on his memories in his art. (Photo by Pedro Wazzan, courtesy Locust Projects)

These endless shifts in style and persona are part of what make Bowie so indelible to Tomas Vu, one of the countless artists that gets inspiration from the Starman. “He’s always been on that edge,” says Vu. “He’s never really quite fit in, but he’s always someone who was pushing the envelope. And I love that about Bowie. He’s constantly shifting and changing.”

That idea of constant transformation is why Vu has made Bowie’s work the subject of a trilogy of multimedia art exhibitions, the third and final of which is currently on view through Saturday, July 19 at Locust Projects in Little River. “Blackstar 16/25/60” attempts to manifest a utopian vision based on the rocker’s final project, released just two days before he died of cancer in January of 2016, from which it takes its name. Incorporating music, video, and architectural elements, the show reflects Bowie’s own ability to synthesize disparate elements of culture and create his own world, time after time.

“He’s fashion, he’s music, he’s art,” says Vu. “And every group claims him, by the way. Nonconformists, Wall Street guys – my last show in Brooklyn, we had a group of straight-up Wall Street guys hanging out the whole time in there because they love Bowie.”

Video projections pair footage of Bowie with Japanese butoh dance (Photo by Pedro Wazzan, courtesy Locust Projects)

That polyglot mentality is present in “Blackstar 16/25/60.” Video projections pair footage of Bowie with Japanese butoh dance. A geodesic dome, representing the modernist ideals of its inventor R. Buckminster Fuller, contains a record player with Bowie’s works and reading material such as the manifesto of “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, contrasting visions of technological innovation and the future, as it was and could be.

Throughout the show’s run, the dome will serve as a stage for screenings, live music, workshops, listening sessions, and other activities aimed at engaging the community. Additionally, the artist welcomes anyone to enter the space and use it as a backdrop for their own artistic activities.

Lorie Mertes, executive director at Locust Projects, says that Vu’s work fits perfectly into expanding a program that the alternative art space hosts monthly.

“With Tomas, who wanted to open up his installation to other artists, we talked about how Locust has become a hub for supporting collaborations across disciplines including experimental, avant-garde music and performances monthly in the Knight DiLL (Digital Innovation Lounge + Lab) to hosting the International Noise Conference supported by two of our staff who are also musicians, which all fed into his interest in seeing creative layering and collaborations in dialogue with Bowie’s legacy in ‘Blackstar.’ ”

Tomas Vu chose to work with Locust Projects in order to make sure “Blackstar” could function as a participatory artwork: “You can do whatever you want with it. You can occupy it, take it over.” (Photo by Pedro Wazzan, courtesy of Locust Projects)

Vu chose to stage the final show in the trilogy at Locust Projects specifically because he felt the artist-run space’s ethos was compatible with his goals for the project, which includes allowing for impromptu, unofficial activations.

“I was very interested in an alternative kind of space, not interested in the ‘white cube.’ I wanted a space with history and that interacts with the community,” he says. “What I’m doing is I’m inviting everyone, anyone who wants to come in and do their intervention to it, they can come in. Like, if you want to come in and start a jam session, we don’t say no. The instruction is like, you can do anything. You can’t destroy the art that’s here, but you can do whatever you want with it. You can occupy it, take it over. And I love that idea. And Locust is the only place that said yes, we can do all that, we want to support those kinds of ideas. In a way that’s part of their mission, you know. So that’s why Locust and why Miami.”

Mertes says that Locust Projects is a place meant for artists to realize ambitious work that might not be possible in a different type of art environment.

“Our space is known as a blank slate for experimentation and for supporting artists in realizing big, bold, ambitious, and sometimes audacious ideas, as part of pushing their practice in ways that museums or galleries can’t or won’t support,” she says. “So long as we continue to have the support to do the vital work that we do for an artist’s practice, we will aim to do just that.”

“Blackstar 16/25/60” features a geodesic dome inspired by the work of R. Buckminster Fuller as well as literature by “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, drawing on contrasting visions of technological innovation. (Photo by Pedro Wazzan, courtesy Locust Projects)

In Berlin and New York, Vu took on “Space Oddity” and “The Man Who Fell To Earth,” two Bowie projects that hold deep resonance with the artist. Born in Vietnam, these two brief moments of Bowie’s long career relate back to his own life, from boyhood in Saigon amidst the chaos of the American War, to adolescence in El Paso, Texas. He recalls watching the moon landing at a G.I. bar in 1969, the same year “Space Oddity” introduced Bowie to the world.

“It takes me back to the sweetest moment of my life, in a way, even though this was during the war” he recalls.

Once in the states, it was Bowie’s starring role in “The Man Who Fell To Earth,” as an alien searching our planet for something to heal his own dying world, that resonated with the recent immigrant. “That movie in particular resonated because of the dislocation, the loss of home,” he says. Having recently arrived in El Paso with his mother, his six siblings and his American GI stepfather, he experienced culture shock, hostility from neighbors and classmates, and struggled to acclimate.

Tomas Vu empathized with the alien Bowie of “The Man Who Fell To Earth” as an immigrant in Texas: “That movie in particular resonated because of the dislocation, the loss of home.” (Photo by Pedro Wazzan, courtesy Locust Projects)

“We had to go around telling people that we were Chinese,” he recalls. “Most of these kids, their father or brother were probably killed or wounded in the war. And so they saw us as the enemy. You had to tell them you were anything but Vietnamese. And quite frankly, these kids didn’t know any better – ‘You guys all look the same.’”

Vu turned to drawing as a way to express himself in that difficult environment.

“I was in the classroom, I just sat there and drew all these great battle scenes of the war, or Bruce Lee doing his kicks and fighting or using nunchuks. And that’s how I was able to get the kids to really like me. I knew the power of the image in that way.”

WHAT: Tomas Vu: Blackstar 16/25/60

 WHERE: Locust Projects, 297 NE 67th St., Miami

 WHEN: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday through Saturday, July 19

 COST: Free

 INFORMATION: 605-576-8570; locustprojects.org

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