Leigh Bowery (26 March 1961 – 31 December 1994) was an Australian performance artist, club promoter, and fashion designer.

The club was known for defying sexual convention, for embracing "polysexualism", for creating a wild atmosphere and for playing unexpected song selections.

He influenced several designers and artists, and was known for wildly creative costumes, makeup, wigs and headgear, all of which combined to be striking and often kitschy.

When that company performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1987, Bowery won a Bessie Award for his work on No Fire Escape in Hell.

Hidden behind a two way mirror he would lie on a 19th Century divan, primping and preening himself at his own reflection, while the audience would watch sitting on the floor from the other side.

Dressed as the drag performer Divine from 'Female Trouble' he appeared on stage in an oversized t-shirt, dark glasses and headscarf, looking huge and miming along to the film dialogue.

Then suddenly, much to the audience's surprise, he drops onto his back and simulate 'giving birth' to his baby, a petite and naked young woman who was his friend, assistant and later wife Nicola Bateman.

[citation needed] In London in 1988, Bowery met the noted painter Lucian Freud in his club Taboo.

This involved almost masochistically taping his torso and piercing his cheeks with pins in order to hold masks, as well as wearing outlandish makeup.

Freud said he found him "perfectly beautiful", and commented, "His wonderfully buoyant bulk was an instrument I felt I could use, especially those extraordinary dancer's legs".

Freud noted that Leigh by nature was a shy and gentle man, and his flamboyant persona was in part a form of self-defence.

To count the hues of even one of his feet is impossible: purple, grey, yellow, brown, the paint creamy, calloused, bulging.

Bowery's violet-domed, wrinkly tube hangs between thighs marked with sinister spots or cuts his knees are massive.

[26] In 2020, Open Wide was re-issued by Candy Records in association with The state51 Conspiracy, while "Useless Man" received a remix by Boy George and a new promo video directed by Torry and Glammore.

[20] Although Bowery was openly gay, he married his long-time female companion Nicola Bateman on 13 May 1994 in Tower Hamlets, London, in "a personal art performance".

Boy George was the creative force, the lyricist and performer in the musical Taboo, which was loosely based on Bowery's club.

Bowery decorated his flat in a style that was similar to the way he dressed, with Star Trek-themed wallpaper, mirrors and a large piano.

[3] Bowery influenced other artists and designers including Meadham Kirchhoff, Alexander McQueen, Lucian Freud, Vivienne Westwood, Boy George, Antony and the Johnsons, Lady Gaga, John Galliano, Scissor Sisters, David LaChapelle, Lady Bunny, Acid Betty, Shea Couleé, and Charles Jeffrey plus numerous Nu-Rave bands and nightclubs in London and New York City.

Bowery was the subject of a contemporary dance, physical theatre and circus show in August 2018 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, put on by Australian choreographer Andy Howitt.