While artists have long worked at the intersection of theatre, fashion, performance, activism and film, to name a few mediums, it’s a cultural shapeshifting that is often sidestepped by the traditional exhibition format. Recently, however, as fluidity is increasingly celebrated, institutions and spaces are unveiling the chameleonic nature of the artist, something the Tate Modern has demonstrated to brilliant effect with its programming in 2024 and 2025.
Recent exhibitions, such as last year’s ‘Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind’, the current ‘Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit’, and the upcoming ‘Leigh Bowery!’, have included works across a broader context. Three different artists working in three different mediums, Ono, Kelley and Bowery are united by their fascination with other worlds beyond the narrow confines of art, which take shape in their work through ritual and conversation. Specifically, threads are woven together through the lens of music, which also becomes a way of connecting the community.
‘All three artists have roots in music subculture and performance,’ says Catherine Wood, Tate Modern’s director of programme. ‘Part of what I’m trying to do with the Tate Modern programme is to make space for the kinds of art-making that have been excluded from the mainstream canon, but which have a real influence on younger artists today, who often think much more openly about the flow between music, art, fashion and activism.’ Wood points out that it is traditionally Western narratives that have formalised a separation between art, dance, theatre and music – something she is keen to address.
We saw this integration in the Yoko Ono show, which explored the eclectic facets in her work through the channels of instruction, performance and film, a radical entry into her world of participatory art. Creating this immersive world was also crucial for Mike Kelley, whose dark pop art comes to life in experimental multimedia installations flicking between the spiritual, the uncanny and the sinister. Leigh Bowery, too, forged his own way through an array of mediums, with his clothing, make-up and performance art directing the gaze back to the body, which itself becomes a tool, situated in a space that could be a club or a gallery.
‘We’re bringing subcultural activities – performance, sound, activism – to light in a new way. It feels relevant to what our audiences are interested in today’
Catherine Wood, Tate Modern’s director of programme
‘It’s interesting because each of these artists had a connection to pop artists who were more well-known than they were,’ adds Wood. ‘Mike Kelley with Sonic Youth, Leigh Bowery with Boy George, and Yoko Ono with John Lennon. But despite this proximity to fame, and creative exchange with those individuals, each of them was, in different ways, inspired by processes of composition, collaboration and “jamming” that come from a musical experience: whether being in a noise band [Mike Kelley], mastering the classical piano [Yoko Ono] or organising a club night or performing in a drag band [Bowery].’
These artists, working in the late-20th century and into the 21st, championed the subversive subcultures of the music that inspired them, reacting against earlier ideas that dictated music must be enjoyed in its pure form only. Here, music is more than a sound, but rather encompasses the aesthetics of everything around it, a winning formula for the freer, non-binary agenda of the future.
‘Music creates a kind of architecture that allows us to experience the passing of time in an aesthetic way,’ says Wood. ‘This is something that has inspired artists and choreographers particularly, because it enables them to create sequences of images, or moving images, that we can experience through duration. With these shows, we’re bringing subcultural activities – performance, sound, activism – to light in a new way. It feels relevant to what our audiences are interested in today.’
‘Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit’ is on show until 9 March 2025; ‘Leigh Bowery!’ is on show from 27 February-31 August 2025, both at Tate Modern, London SE1
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