Major Tom by Wild Seeley

Wild Seeley is a London Highbury based urban artist whose paintings defy convention.

Juxtaposing urban scenes, humans with animal heads creating havoc and you enter Wild Seeley’s world.

With a distinctly British style Wild Seeley’s work is subversive and surreal, using almost feverish marks, his painterly technique is highly distinctive.

Inspired by the darker forces of society, the often-farcical forces of human nature and by merging popular culture with urban images his works force us to examine society and the individual.

Wild Seeley has been on the underground urban art scene since 2005 and is now rising to prominence on the gallery circuit.

Major Tom is a persona of David Bowie’s, mentioned in songs “Space Oddity”, “Ashes to Ashes”, “Hallo Spaceboy”, “Major_Tom_(Coming_Home)”, and “Blackstar”. Bowie’s own interpretation of the character evolved throughout his career. “Space Oddity” (1969) depicts an astronaut who casually slips the bonds of the world to journey beyond the stars. In the song “Ashes to Ashes” (1980), Bowie reinterprets Major Tom as an oblique autobiographical symbol for himself. Major Tom is described as a “junkie, strung out in heaven’s high, hitting an all-time low”. This lyric was interpreted as a play on the title of Bowie’s album Low (1977), which was inspired by the withdrawal symptoms he suffered while undergoing treatment for drug addiction. Additionally, the choked and self-recriminating tone used in the lyrics “Time and again I tell myself I’ll stay clean tonight” reinforces an autobiographical and retrospective interpretation. A short time later, there is another reversal of Major Tom’s original withdrawal, turning ‘outwards’ or towards space.