JIBZ CAMERON

Photography

BY CHARLIE GROSS

FUNKADELIC

PINK FLOYD

AUSTRA

THE POINTER SISTERS

CARDI B

LINTON KWESI JOHNSON

PATRICK COWLEY

FEVER RAY

CHARLOTTE ADIGÉRY

PRINCE

YOKO ONO

JANET JACKSON

RAY LYNCH

BRIAN ENO

LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY

NINA HAGEN

GRACE JONES

DONNY HATHAWAY

PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA

LATTO

FREE KITTEN

DICKS

LAURIE ANDERSON

BLACK SABBATH SNEAKS

SONIDO GALLO NEGRO CAN NORMANI

PERE UBU

As a 10-year-old, Jibz Cameron wrote in a poem, “I am the wolf. I run / through the forest. / I howl / back / AND forth / through the forest. / looking for that place / the place where I / can let it all out.” In the nearly four decades since those words flowed out of her, Cameron—better known as her high-camp alter ego Dynasty Handbag—has found myriad pockets and platforms of expression, from her Los Angeles variety show “Weirdo Night,” which will be resurrected this summer, to a topsy-turvy take on Titanic this past May at New York’s Pioneer Works. This fall, the artist’s visual practice will be on view in the Hammer Museum’s “Made in L.A.” biennial. Cameron’s musical landscape is as riotous and polychrome as her persona.

WHAT’S THE BEST SOUNDTRACK TO GET DRESSED TO? Before a show, I need something mighty, like the Stooges or Megan Thee Stallion, to get me doing air kicks, gnashing my teeth, and stomping about with borrowed confidence. If I need to get grounded, I listen to Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Mass in B Minor.” One of my favorite compositions of all time is “India,” by John Coltrane. I don’t want to sound like a dick. This interview is like, “What music do you like?” And I’m all, “Bach, complex jazz?” But there you have it. I love Bach, and I love John Coltrane. Do I understand it? No, and nary shall I try! Whomst cares!

FIRST SONIC MEMORY? I was obsessed with the radio and never wanted to miss a song, so I would record it at night. Like, I put a tape in the tape deck to record the radio and then flipped it in the middle of the night. I also called the radio a lot and demanded that songs be played. I was about 7 or 8 when “Cum on Feel the Noize” by Quiet Riot (best band name of all time perhaps) was on the Top 40, and I remember calling the radio station telling them to play it again. I remember this really well because it’s also a shameful memory—they laughed at me.

FAVORITE SOUND? I bumped my head into a gigantic wind chime recently, and it was like I was scoring my own cartoon. The sound of an outdoor concert from far away is a great, sad, weird sound. Dogs howling with a siren. Any double bass drums. Frogs. Getting up to pee at 3 a.m. and hearing an owl. Windshield wipers.

WEIRDEST SOUND YOU CAN MAKE? I can do a decent Martha Stewart impression.

July 8 — August 19, 2023