Photo: Masayoshi Sukita. © Sukita / The David Bowie Archive 2012.
Artist and musician Gladys Hulot has created a video that combines two of our greatest obsessions of the moment: David Bowie and street art.
What’s more, she’s soundtracked the stop-motion film with a cover of “Life on Mars?” that she composed herself (and here’s the kicker) using . . . a musical saw. If you’re unfamiliar with the instrument, which is also sometimes called a “singing saw,” it’s actually just a hand saw manipulated by a bow to create an eerie, ethereal sound. Don’t worry, we had to Google it too.
In addition to an homage to graffiti, the video features a giant animated Bowie head that spits out lyrics to the classic song as the saw warbles in accompaniment.
“I have to say that David Bowie is incredibly important for me: he pulls me forward as an artist,” Hulot told the Creators Project. “I don’t know if he already knows this work.” We sincerely hope that he does.
A retrospective of Bowie’s life and career, “David Bowie Is” recently outstripped attendance records at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (see David Bowie Retrospective Touches Down in Chicago, David Bowie Exhibition Smashes Museum Records) after a nearly sold-out run in London, and will touch down in Berlin this summer (see David Bowie Retrospective Comes to Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau, Tap into David Bowie’s Creative Core) for what’s sure to be an equally frenzied run.
If Hulot’s rousing cover has gotten you in the mood for some Bowie of the vintage variety, we’ve got you covered there too. Remember the time the Thin White Duke exposed a puppet’s genitalia on SNL? We do (see Celebrate David Bowie’s Birthday with This Bizarre Vintage Video).