Iris Lingyu Zhang

             

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Leigh Bowery | Rebellion and Body Politics
Viewing Leigh Bowery at Tate Modern
2025.5.3





Walking into Leigh Bowery's exhibition doesn't feel like entering a conventional art space. It's more like accidentally stumbling into a carefully orchestrated dream. Polka dots, light bulbs, the nostalgic music distinctive of the eighties and early nineties—everything around carries that unbridled spirit unique to that era, a taste of underground hormones that existed outside the mainstream. The exhibition layout is also intriguing, with mannequins and bizarre costumes that make you feel as though that spirit is right beside you, making you sense that you too have traveled back to that era, entering the nightclub full of taboos that nurtured Leigh Bowery's work.

To understand Leigh Bowery, I think we must first return to that specific era—1980s Britain. Margaret Thatcher was in power, neoliberalism was flourishing, the economy underwent many changes, and culture became increasingly conservative. The Thatcher government emphasized personal responsibility and traditional values; society seemed to become less tolerant, with decreased acceptance of so-called "deviants."

What made it even more oppressive was that queer culture was struggling. Section 28 of the Local Government Act of 1988 prohibited local authorities from "promoting homosexuality." This was undoubtedly a huge blow to the queer community—their voices became even harder to hear. Combined with the AIDS crisis, society remained shrouded in gloom, mainstream voices intensified the stigmatization of homosexuality, and fear and discrimination spread everywhere.

It was in this oppressive social environment that Leigh Bowery ignited a flame of rebellion through his almost manic artistic practice.

What I find most impressive and unique about Leigh Bowery are those exaggerated makeup looks and masks. They are not merely decorative; I think they're more like manifestos, challenges to the established order.

In traditional concepts, the face is a symbol of our identity, an important basis for recognizing each other. It seems to be something we're born with, unchangeable. But Bowery insisted on obscuring it, concealing it, even completely subverting it. He seemed to pose a question to the public: Is our identity really only attached to this face? Must we only passively accept fate's arrangements rather than actively shape and change ourselves?

Through concealing his face, Bowery completed a "hijacking" of the self. He reclaimed control over his own identity, transforming himself from an object to be observed, defined, and stigmatized into an active identity creator and performer. He used makeup and masks to create one jaw-dropping "character" after another—these characters were both grotesque and charming, full of provocation and power. Each appearance was a fresh contest and inscription of individual identity, an inquiry into the eternal proposition of "who am I."

If masks are a deconstruction of identity, then Bowery's clothing design is a continuous challenge to gender boundaries. His alteration of garment silhouettes was a constantly evolving process. In his early work, he tended to blur the body's contours, wrapping the body in loose, strange garments, attempting to break established aesthetic norms. This concealment was not only a subversion of traditional clothing structures but also a rethinking of the body itself.
In his later work, Bowery's designs became more radical and direct. He began experimenting with elements that had strong gender implications, such as prosthetic sexual characteristics and exposed designs. This was undoubtedly a further challenge to gender binaries. He was no longer satisfied with merely blurring gender boundaries but tried to break them, to reveal their artificially constructed nature. By exaggeratedly presenting gender symbols, he forced viewers to think: Does our understanding of gender really come from our bodies, or from society's disciplining of our bodies?

He seemed to constantly ask: Are there really only two gender choices? Can't we transcend these artificial boundaries to seek broader spaces for gender expression? His clothing, rather than being clothing per se, was more like a bold escape from traditional gender norms, a profound exploration of gender essence.

Exploring at a deeper level, the core subject of Leigh Bowery's artistic practice might be body politics. All his creations—whether those face-concealing masks or those strangely silhouetted garments—revolve around the body as their center.

Body politics holds that power is not lofty and untouchable but permeates around us like air. Through various norms, institutions, and discourses, it constantly shapes and disciplines our bodies, trying to bring us into so-called normal trajectories. In Thatcher-era Britain, conservative ideology and oppression of queer culture disciplined people's bodies through various covert or overt means, attempting to erase differences and suppress individuality.

Leigh Bowery's art was precisely a rebellion against this discipline. He used his own body as canvas, employing those shocking forms as weapons to challenge social norms, express his political stance, and defend individual bodily autonomy. His body was no longer a passive object of discipline but became an active site of struggle, a tool for self-expression, a stage for claiming voice. We can see in his later experiments that he placed himself as an object in museum display cases for public viewing, achieving a transfer and discussion of the object-subject-object viewing structure.

From his work, we can rethink the ways in which the body as object or part of art can be explored and deconstructed, and consider the relationship between body, individual identity, and social discipline. How should we define our own bodies? How should we fight for bodily freedom? And how should we resist those powers that attempt to discipline our bodies?


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Artworks ↗
 Kisen (2025)

 The Night I was on my Balcony (2025)

 Parasite (2025)

 Talking to him (2025)

 EMANON (2025)

 Reborn (2024)

 The Body in Blue (2024)

 Traces: ‘Free-assemblage making’ as a method to touch self-narrative (2024)

The Tent (2024)

 Will U Remember me? (2024)

 Won’t U Remember me? (2024)

 Comet Tail (2024)

 Null-Flux (2024)

 Sleeping in the wood (2024)
No.0-PI (2023)

 No.219 (2023)

 No.-1 (2023)

 No.9719 No.1202 No.2202 No.1520 (2023)
 Unknown Utopia (2023)

 A Punch on Tofu (2023)

 CSI;’‘’‘’‘’‘;’;/;;‘’/;‘;(2023)
Profile (Sample)
Iris Lingyu Zhang (b. 1997, Beijing) is a multimedia artist and researcher working between London and Beijing. Her emotionally immersive works span digital and installation-based media, exploring feminist inquiries into the body, space, and desire. Drawing on psychology and philosophy, her practice negotiates identity, intimacy, and cultural memory through porous visual forms.

Iris holds a Master of Research from the Royal College of Art and pursuing her second Master’s degree in Fine Arts at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has exhibited internationally, with recent shows including international Biennale THE WRONG, Visions in the Nunnery 2025 at London Bow Art Gallery,  Permeate in Vienna, and Instante in São Paulo. Her work has also been presented at IKLECTIK, Hundred Years Gallery, and The Handbag Factory, among others.
         
Email, Instagram ↗
Education
Master of Fine Art                         Sep 2026 -
Goldsmiths, University of London

Master of Research
Visual Communication                  Sep 2023 - Sep 2024
Royal College of Art
Exhibitions ↗
A Room for Unbecoming Women
The Handbag Factory, 3 Loughborough Street SE11 5TB
30.07.2026 - 03.08.2026

TABOO
Bradley House, 26 ST Albans LN, NW11 7QE                                 
23.07.2026 - 13.08.2026

THE WRONG International Biennale Transient Info
Virtual Worldwide
01.11.2025 - 31.03.2026

Visions in the Nunnery 2025
Bow Road & Nunnery Gallery, 181-183 Bow Road E3 2SJ
04.10.2025 - 09.11.2025

The Green Grammar
art'otel London Hoxton, 1-3 Rivington Street, EC2A 3DT
27.06.2025 - 29.06.2025

Pieces of Me
Artworks East Gallery, 32-34 Osier Way, E10 5SB
 06.06.2025 - 04.07.2025

Behind the Closed Doors – Safehouse, 137 Copeland Road SE15 3SN
31.05.2025 - 03.06.2025

Permeate – West/Alte WU, Augasse 2-6, 1090 Vienna, Austria
 29.03.2025 - 03.04.2025

Secret Salon: Electric Ladyland
Caveside Cl, Old Hill, Chislehurst BR7 5NL
14.12.2024
Instante
Echos Studio, Rua Pelotas, 400 - Vila Mariana, Sao Paulo, Brazil
07.12.2024 - 20.12.2024

The Dark Side
Boomer Gallery, 150 Tooley Street, London SE1 2TU
08.11.2024 - 13.11.2024

MYSTICAL
Fox Yard Studio, 6 Old Fox Yard, Stowmarket IP14 1AB
25.10.2024 - 05.11.2024

Sound Field Folding
Hundred Years Gallery, 13 Pearson St, London E2 8JD
  03.08.2024

MRes RCA 2024 Research Journeys
The Hanger Gallery, London SW11 4NL
26.07.2024 - 01.08.2024

Fragment for the Future; Movement
The Hanger Gallery, London SW11 4NL
29.04.2024 - 01.05.2024

Whispers of the Unseen: Sonic Alchemy
Iklectik, 20 Carlisle Lane, London SE1 7LG
13.12.2023
Press ↗
Ourculture Art&Photography: “In the syntax of pauses: Sensing the green grammar”     2025

FAD Magazine
“Behind the closed doors: Reconstructin the narrative of home in a crumbling house”.   2025

Divide Magazine issue 12                                                                                                                          2024

Collect Art Magazine winter issue seasonal edition                   2024

 Reflections of the Past, Visions of Tomorrow                                2024

Artistcloseup Magazine issue 25                                                       2024

Artistcloseup Blog individual interview                                            2024