To complement Tate Modern’s exhibition on the ground-breaking, multi-hyphenate club icon Leigh Bowery, join us for a panel discussion featuring the exhibition’s curator Fiontán Moran, alongside three of Bowery’s friends and collaborators: DJ Princess Julia, choreographer Les Child (aka Leslie Bryant), and biographer Sue Tilley.
Not only will the evening be filled with unforgettable anecdotes about Bowery’s outrageous and controversial live performances but we will discuss hown Bowery’s intense but short-lived career of transgressive creativity shaped successive generations of counterculture, an influence that endures until today.
The hardback exhibition book will be available to purchase on the night for the special price of £40
This event is co-produced in collaboration with EA Festival
Les Child
As a master choreographer and movement director expert in elevating fashion imagery through stylised dance moves, Les Child has collaborated with some of the biggest image makers and designers in fashion including Tim Walker, Patrick Demarchelier, Miuccia Prada and Alexander McQueen. Child started out as a student at the Lindsay Kemp Company, then went on to dance for the Rambert School of Ballet for three years before joining the celebrated Michael Clark Company. It was at the latter that he began working with artists like Leigh Bowery. He worked closely with Bowery on dance and movement for eight years, becoming one of his close friends in the process.
Princess Julia
A club icon whose career spans 40 years, Princess Julia was part of the New Romantic movement in the 1970s. (That movement was a reaction to punk that embraced flamboyant fashion, theatrical makeup and rejected mainstream values.) Since then, she has been an integral part of London counterculture including Leigh Bowery’s Taboo nightclub (1980s), the ground-breaking queer club night Flesh at the Hacienda (1990s), and The Ghetto (2000s), besides being resident DJ at Kinky Gerlinky (1990s). She continues to be an active member of the LGBTQ+ club, art and fashion scenes.
Sue Tilley
Sue Tilley was born in South London in 1957. While working full time in jobcentres, she became a stalwart of the 80s club circuit, where she met Leigh Bowery. Tilley worked at Taboo, Bowery's nightclub, and, over time, they became best friends. Bowery introduced her to artist Lucian Freud, and, alongside Bowery, Freud began painting Tilley. His portraits of her, among them Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, broke world records at auction for paintings by living artists at the time. In 2015, Tilley retired from the jobcentre and moved to St Leonards-on-Sea, where she began painting. Since then, she has had exhibitions in London, Hull and Hastings, and her illustrations figured prominently in Fendi’s Spring 2018 menswear collection. Her biography, Leigh Bowery: The Life and Times of an Icon, originally written in 1997, will be republished in February 2025.
EA Festival is the producer of two biennial festivals, EA Festival, an ideas and literary festival, and EA Sustain, a festival about Environment, Culture and Entrepreneurship. Both festivals feature top thought leaders, authors and performers and EA Festival is the top festival of its kind in the East of England.
All Tate Modern entrances are step-free. You can enter via the Turbine Hall and into the Natalie Bell Building on Holland Street, or into the Blavatnik Building on Sumner Street.
There are lifts to every floor of the Blavatnik and Natalie Bell buildings. Alternatively you can take the stairs.
- Fully accessible toilets are located on every floor on the concourses.
- A quiet room is available to use in the Natalie Bell Building on Level 4.
- Ear defenders can be borrowed from the Ticket desks.
To help plan your visit to Tate Modern, have a look at our visual story. It includes photographs and information about what you can expect from a visit to the gallery.
For more information before your visit:
- Email hello@tate.org.uk
- Call +44 (0)20 7887 8888 (daily 10.00–17.00)
