Queer Performance - Central Research and Creativity Online

DH: Yes, well I can relate to that, can’t wait for the first one.
DL: Calling the break early…
SF: Well formally I think that’s what queerness is and I’m interested in the way
that you make your work and what you were saying at the beginning, Dusty,
about there being a constant moment of change and just being ahead, not
because it gives you a market but because it steps with your work, keeping
just that little bit beyond what’s thinkable, what’s conceivable.
DL: I think that’s a natural developmental process and in my case it wasn’t
always conscious. The starting point for the Dusty Limits character, the things
I wouldn’t compromise on, were my sexual orientation, which was simply not
going to be something I would lie about because I couldn’t see the point and it
seems artistically untrue, and I wanted to have an element of satire. I didn’t
want to ever end up in a sentimental posture. From there, the developmental
process has just happened as the world around me has changed. It’s almost
like the red queen running constantly in order to stay in the same place – you
have to be constantly changing in order not to fall behind. How much of that is
conscious I don’t know, though. It’s not like the way that someone like David
Bowie reinvented himself, very consciously and very artistically.
SF: Let’s talk about how you get to make your work, that’s intriguing.
I think the manifestations of your respective work are quite diverse and yet
foundations are very close. What kind of processes do you go through? When
you get an idea for a show, how do you work it out? How do you decide which
hair you’re going to do it with? How do you decide which song you might
choose? How do you decide which music you’ll do? How do you get to those?
DL: In my case, again it seems to happen the other way round, which is I’ll be
listening to a song or I’ll be going through some music and I’ll go, ‘Oh I like
that, I’ll do that,’ and then I’ll go, ‘Oh shit, I’ve to come up with something for
this haven’t I because I really don’t have any idea what I’m doing!’ Or I’ll get a