Campaign launched to construct permanent David Bowie memorial in Brixton

A new artwork inspired by the lightning flash that covered David Bowie’s face on the cover of Aladdin Sane has been proposed for Brixton, where the artist was born in 1947.

The nine-metre, stainless steel, red and blue sculpture is planned to sit opposite the entrance to Brixton Underground station, adjacent to Jimmy C’s David Bowie mural that became the focus of memorials following his death. Dubbed The ZiggyZag, the artwork would live just five streets from Bowie’s birthplace.

“Recreating the iconic lightning flash from Duffy’s Aladdin Sane LP cover in gravity-defying red and blue-sprayed stainless steel, this is a monumental piece of public art,” say the organisers. “Just as an otherworldly David Bowie landed in our lives, the memorial (is it too soon to call it the ZiggyZag?) stands embedded in the Brixton pavement – a three-storey tall bolt from above. A nine-metre missive from another dimension, hurled from afar.”

The project, conceived by a team including This Ain’t Rock and Roll, Binki Taylor, Tom Carter, The Structure Workshop and Benson Sedgwick Engineering hopes to raise £1 million via crowdfunding.