Mike McCarthy lent a hand as guests climbed a ladder in front of his
10-foot, papier-mache sculpture work-in-progress of David Bowie.
Guests at his “Glam Rock Picnic” were given little pieces of clay to tap onto the sculpture to help build the statue.
The statue, which portrays Bowie in the “Tokyo Pop” jumpsuit by Kansai Yamamoto, has four heads, which represent Bowie’s predilection for taking on different identities.
The goal of McCarthy’s nonprofit, Sculpt Memphis, is to preserve Memphis music through sculpture. He believes placing the statue in Overton Park near the site of the old Memphis College of Art in Overton Park would be a good spot for the Bowie statue when it’s completed. In 1973 Bowie visited the school, then known as Memphis Academy of Arts, to accept a watercolor by Dolph Smith, an instructor at the time.
Smith and his son, Ben Smith, attended the picnic.
“I thought it was a great kickoff to phase one,” McCarthy says.
The ultimate goal is to cast the sculpture in bronze. Which may mean another party or two in the future.
