<strong>AIR</strong> “To talk about Camp is to betray it”, posited Susan Sontag in the introduction to her seminal and controversial essay on the topic. The late American writer penned her Notes on ‘Camp’ back in 1964, and it was a sensation. As her first contribution to Partisan Review, the prose served as a comprehensive pulse check, an explanation of subtext, a charting of camp's evolution, and secured Sontag intellectual notoriety. Her essay took the form of 58 notes, and included a list of "random examples of items that are part of the canon of Camp" – among them Tiffany lamps, Aubrey Beardsley drawings, Swan Lake, certain turnof-the-century picture postcards, and the Cuban pop singer La Lupe. “At the time she wrote her essay, camp was largely ‘a private code’ and ‘a badge of identity’ among small urban cliques,” explains Andrew Bolton, the curator of a current exhibition at The Met, which is using Sontag’s insight as the axis for an immersive investigation. It changed the privacy of camp “irrevocably,” he elaborates. “She essentially catapulted camp into the mainstream, where it’s remained ever since.” “ Sontag wrote that if you look at art through camp eyes, a Caravaggio painting has the same visual appeal as a Flash Gordon comic ” At the press introduction to the exhibition, held at Teatro Gerolamo, the curator noted that, “The word camp first entered the hallowed and sanctioned ‘space’ of a dictionary – Ware’s Dictionary of English Slang and Phrase – in 1909. The entry read: ‘Actions and gestures of exaggerated emphasis. Used chiefly by persons of exceptional want of character.’” There have been moments when camp has come to the fore “to become the defining aesthetic or sensibility of the times, reflecting the zeitgeist,” says the fashion expert. “The 1960s was one such moment, as were the 1980s, and, arguably, the times in which we’re now living.” He told The New York Times that "Whether it’s pop camp... high camp or political camp – Trump is a very camp figure – I think it’s very timely." This year The Met is grabbing the bull by its feathered boa. For starters, it has selected ‘camp’ as the theme for its annual Costume Institute Benefit: the showstopping society-soiree also known as The Met Gala, held on 6 <strong>May</strong>. Previous themes have been as diverse as ‘China: Through the Looking Glass’, ‘Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology’, and ‘Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between’. This time, the invitation-only attendees have been tasked with capturing the parody, pastiche and theatricality of camp. Then there is the immersive exhibition titled Camp: Notes on Fashion, made possible by Gucci, which serves as the topical reflection behind the red-carpet regality. “It’s an examination of how fashion designers have used their métier as a vehicle to engage with camp in a myriad of compelling, humorous, and sometimes incongruous ways,” Bolton enthuses. A simple understanding of camp’s far-reaching influence could be gleaned simply by reading the line-up of the designers whose ensembles will be featured. They include heavyweights 46
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