This Is Not Exactly a Cat Video: w/ David Bowie's “Starman”

In this work, Frances Stark weaves the intimacy of everyday life with the mystical glow of Bowie. The video shows the artist’s son and a friend—at times hunched over, at times dancing on a messy bed—watching the iconic Ziggy Stardust persona on a laptop. The scene draws power from the quiet intensity of the blond boy, seen almost entirely from behind. Echoing Germaine Aghion’s painting, the child bends away, focused on the screen. The watchful eye of an aunt in the painting is here replaced by a mother’s gaze through the camera lens—making the viewer a quiet accomplice to that subtle attention. Meanwhile, 1970s Bowie stares back at us from the MacBook screen, a nostalgic beacon of light in the heart of a domestic setting.

Free entry.