LA artist Jibz Cameron, also known under her alter-ego Dynasty Handbag, is a queer performer, writer, visual and recording artist. She is a recipient of the 2020 Creative Capital Grant awardee and a 2021 United States Artist Award, having worked for over 15 years, she has made a name for herself amongst her community of queer alternative artists in LA. Gracing the LA art scene with her bold style, Cameron is refreshing with her approach to the art scene, working under her alter-ego Dynasty Handbag, creating a whole world around her. Her work has been featured in many prestigious galleries and venues such as the Andy Warhol Museum, the Hammer Museum in LA, SXSW in Austin, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, just to name a few.
Cameron is the producer, and host of her original variety show Weirdo Night. Her campy, avant-garde and provocative style seeps into her art, reminiscent of the likes of John Waters. There is a distinct kitschiness in her performance and direction with Dynasty Handbag. Created with so much detail, her presence is compelling and authentic. Her parody performances explore punk politics, discussing queer identity, over class and social structure and heterosexuality.
Her latest film project, Garbage Castle is a satirical commentary that follows the social struggles of living under capitalism. She also creates music that is satirical in nature, much like the rest of her work. Her song When a Man Has an Idea is her most streamed song on Spotify and pokes fun at male weaponised incompetence. Her work is cohesive, with the production of her music aligning with her style, and performances.
Her debut memoir, Hell in a Handbag traces her absurd and ludicrous life spent with hippie-clowns in the communes of Northern California, her experience as a punk scene teenager in East Bay, to the misogyny in the New York avant-garde theatre scene, to where she stands now as Dynasty Handbag. Presented at the Soho Theatre from the 29th of July to the 1st of August, Jibz Cameron brings Hell in a Handbag to life through performance and reading on stage, an opportunity to experience Dynasty Handbag in all her chaotic and freakish glory on stage.
In the lead‑up to her Soho Theatre run, Jibz Cameron spoke to us about the world of Dynasty Handbag, the origins of her alter‑ego, and the ways her memoir and performance practices intersect. In this conversation, she reflects on navigating fiction and reality, shaping Dynasty Handbag’s image, the emotional roots of her work, and the shift from performing to writing Hell in a Handbag. She also shares what it feels like to bring such a raw, vulnerable story onto the stage.
Nearly all of my Dynasty Handbag performances are based on real things that have happened or real feelings I have. I try to use metaphor for experiences because it lends well to my style of exaggerated performance, or turn people into animals, or transmute feelings into smells or some other sort of symbolic presentation – in this way I can expand concepts and make my work more accessible in some ways, because there isn’t such a finite entry point. It’s nearly the opposite to writing a memoir, where the specifics of a moment or feeling are crucial to the audience or reader connecting to the work. If that makes sense!
She is an amalgamation of many symbols of what a “woman” should look and act like. But most of those things are absurd and hideous and meant to keep women’s bodies restricted, criticized or ogled sexually. The idea that “nothing fits” on Dynasty Handbag is also conceptual. I can manage to make anything look terrible, from a nasty leotard to a fancy gown to a pair of sunglasses.
She arose out of a small solo music project that was an outlet for a lot of misery and depression I was going through- but didn’t really have healthy outlets for. I borrowed a Roland synthesizer and a 4 track. Soon I had a handful of pedestrian clunkers with simple beats and dreary melodies. The feelings coming out of me were intense, but the music and singing were so bad it gave me freedom to be as melodramatic and dark as I wanted. I was able to be really honest because it was hard to take the whole thing seriously, and that was a relief. The stupider it all sounded, the funnier it was to me, and that kept me from getting bored with myself. This is still what keeps me making work.
It was an entirely different experience! I enjoyed and also hated having to learn something new. Which can be painful and exhilarating. When something goes on the page for the book, that’s where it stops. It doesn’t get filtered through my body on stage, with my performance timing and physicality to enrich it, there is no music to enhance feeling states, it just is what it is. So I had to work harder to really dig beneath what I put down to bring nuance and levity.
It feels really special and scary. I didn’t think this format of show would work but it works incredibly well. I am old enough now and have been doing this for so long that I don’t really care so much about hiding my “real self” from the world. Controlling that narrative is exhausting and honestly who cares. The book is very raw and vulnerable, but there is nothing in it I haven’t worked through or can’t speak to with confidence. At this point, when everything is literally burning to the ground, I don’t have much to lose by exposing my warts. Maybe my wart exposition will help someone, or at least make someone laugh and that is the best I could hope for!
Cameron’s reflections reveal an artist who has shaped an entire universe out of humour, vulnerability and sharp cultural critique. Whether through Dynasty Handbag, her music, or her memoir, her work continues to push at the edges of performance and identity. Hell in a Handbag brings that world into sharp focus, offering audiences a chance to experience her singular voice in all its chaotic, tender and unapologetic force.
Interview by Rim Alkaiat
For more information about the Show and Soho Theatre visit Dynasty Handbag: Hell in a Handbag – Soho Theatre
Read our latest Abundantart-Reviews
