One fateful evening in February, 1990, Leigh Bowery — the fashion designer, performance artist, king of London nightlife and all-round arch provocateur (who would detest such categorisation; “if you label me, you negate me,” he used to say) — even shocked himself.
Performing at AIDS Benefit in Brixton, squeezed into a showgirl top he had decorated with golden bobby pins, he bent his famously huge, 6ft 3 frame in half, and squirted water out of his anus, showering those who had the misfortune of sitting front row. The stunt nearly had the venue shut down. “Privately” he worried he had taken it too far.
