Crowdfunding campaign launched for Brixton's Bowie lightning bolt memorial

Startling, stupid and utterly joyous in equal measure, this is a piece of public art that the whole community can be proud of

– Charlie Waterhouse, This Ain’t Rock’n’Roll Startling, stupid and utterly joyous in equal measure, this is a piece of public art that the whole community can be proud of

The extraordinary life and career of music icon David Bowie could be marked with a gravity-defying lightning bolt sculpture in the London district where he was born.

Architect Zac Monro, arts collective This Ain’t Rock’n’Roll and sculptor Tom Carter have proposed the three-storey, 9m (29.5ft) tall steel memorial, which reimagines the famous bolt sported by Bowie on the cover of his 1973 album Aladdin Sane as a giant three-dimensional structure in the heart of Brixton.

The plans have been developed in consultation with Bowie’s management team in New York and London and have the support of the local Lambeth Council.

“It’s a monument that’s at once baffling yet immediately familiar – a reminder that there’s always another narrative,” said Charlie Waterhouse, of This Ain’t Rock’n’Roll. “Startling, stupid and utterly joyous in equal measure, this is a piece of public art that the whole community can be proud of. It’s totally Brixton, utterly Bowie. Where the Man Who Fell to Earth fell to earth, a heartfelt tribute, from one London character to another.”

If given the green light, the bolt will be built in Tunstall Road, directly opposite Brixton Underground station, and next to the existing David Bowie mural – a focal point for tributes since the artist’s death in January 2016. It will be called ZiggyZag in reference to both its shape and Bowie’s extra-terrestrial Ziggy Stardust persona.

The cost of the project has been estimated at £1m (US$1.3m, €1.2m) and a crowdfunding campaign has been launched to raise the money, with council leader Lib Peck urging the musician's fans “to get behind the bold and ambitious proposal.”

This is not the first time the iconic lightning bolt has been revived in memory of Bowie. Last year, Belgian radio station Studio Brussels and astronomers from the MIRA public observatory registered a constellation of seven stars near Mars that shine in the familiar zigzag shape.