Susan Sontag’s proclamation that: ‘All Camp objects, and persons contain a large element of artifice. Nothing in nature can be campy…’ (Sontag, p.277) made me immediately think of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Elliott, 1996) and how the difference between camp and nature supplements the films comedy.
The film follows three drag performers as they traverse the Australian outback. The desolate environment is the perfect opposition for the characters exaggerated feminine aesthetic. Sontag talks about camp as decorative art (ibid, p.278) and this is certainly true for this film.
We can also see the excess of camp in the design of the bus, Priscilla, whose extreme paintwork- curtesy of Guy Pearce’s Tick, brilliantly contradicts the red vastitude of the Outback.
The characters of this film are certainly befitting of camps etymology; originating from the French ‘to posture or flaunt’. The characters’ otherness allows for humour to come from the cultural and physical difference of their situation.
There is almost an absurdity to their presence in the harsh terrain, in doing so they claim agency over the Australian folk-myth of conquering the outback. This is significant given the fringe role of the LGBT community in this particular history. An article by Allan James Thomas talks about how the nature of the outback is something to be conquered and the film codes it as a symbol of colonialism. (Thomas, p.98) In Priscilla we see camp as method of cultural deference and resistance. The boldness of the characters is made clear through their presence. As Thomas states:
Drag may also offer an assertion of the performer’s identity through the pre-existing and conflicting cultural definitions which exclude them from that power. (Thomas, p.105)
Thus, camp can be seen as the cultural weaponisation of the irregular against the multitudes that may dismiss it.
I did really like your comparison between nature and camp artifice in this film: even though camp does not exist in nature, it is like these characters bring camp into it just by being themselves. It’s their exaggerated feminine aesthetic, like you said, and the artifice of their characters that makes the environment campy.
What Sontag calls the “spirit of extravagance” is clearly visible in Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. Excessive bodily movements and decorative costumes provide a sense of campiness to an otherwise barren landscape. I feel the characters themselves become representatives of nature, and try to infuse colour and movement to the background.