Comedy historically comes from a queer identity defence, when it was harder to be gay in public, to be funny like Kenneth Williams who used gay slang known as Polari to communicate with other gay men covertly. Polari hovers being blunt and not and allows users ‘to get away with’ being very rude. Historically so, when used in abundance on mainstream radio when the majority heteronormative listener would be oblivious to the innuendo they were listening to / they were laughing at.

Bona Polari! takes Polari as a theme to engage visitors using Lee Campbell’s recent film The Tale of Benny Harris (2022) written entirely in Polari slang as a catalyst for discussion and a means to invite visitors to create their own polari.

The visitor first engages with the film displayed in the window where footage of pages of a Polari dictionary are flipped through at speed punctured by another layer of graffiti-esque Polari phrases to capture their imagination.

Then upon entering the space and experiencing the film projected with the sound on, visitors will be able to hear Lee performing a poem he has written in Polari that adds a further dimension to the visual imagery. An accompanying workshop will give participants the chance to learn more about the history of Polari, hear Lee speaking Polari, identify Polari words that they may already be using (i.e., naff) and then write their own rhyming Polari poems.

Lee Campbell will be running a workshop + lecture to run alongside this exhibition. Learn more and RSVP here: bit.ly/34YKEY1

Bona Polari! is part of a group exhibition in collaboration with Bashar Ali's Politicorgy exhibition which has explicit imagery not recommended for children.

About Lee Campbell

Dr Lee Campbell is an artist filmmaker, writer, Senior Lecturer at University of the Arts London, curator of regular performance poetry night POW! Play on Words and founder of Homo Humour, the first of its kind project on contemporary queer male film and moving image practices that explore humour and LGBTQ+ storytelling. Lee’s experimental performance poetry films have been selected for many international film festivals since 2019 including Queerbee LGBT Film Festival, The Gilbert Baker Film Festival, Kansas 2020 and 2021, HOMOGRAPHY, Brussels and STATES OF DESIRE: Tom of Finland in the Queer Imagination, Casa de Duende, Philadelphia, USA, 2020 WICKED QUEER 2021, Boston, USA, FilmPride - Brighton & Hove Pride's official LGBTQ+ film festival, Brighton, UK, Splice Film Festival 2021, Brooklyn, USA and Darkroom Festival, London. He has won several awards/nominations for these films including Best Psychedelic Fantasy film winner for 'See Me' (2020), Retro Avant Garde Film Festival NYC 2021, Semi-Finalist at Serbest International Film Festival 2021, Honorable Mention and Semi Finalist winner at Splice Film Festival, New York (2020 and 2021), Nominee for Best Original Concept and Best Atmosphere Independent Horror Movie Awards 2021, Honorable Mention Award, Screener Short Films 2020, Best Kent Film nominee, Margate Bookie Film Festival, 2020 and Special Mention Award, London-Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival, 2019.

In 2022, Lee’s films have already been selected to screen in these prestigious events/festivals: Beyond Words curated by Gabriel Sosa, Fountain Street Gallery, Boston USA, Micromania Film Festival and The Football Art Prize, UK-touring exhibition to Touchstones Rochdale, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield and Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens.

More about Lee Campbell: 

filmfreeway.com/LeeCampbell and leecampbellartist.blogspot.com

Twitter, Insta and Facebook: @leejjcampbell