ALL ABOUT BIPOLAR ABDUL
- Niamh Brownhill
- Jun 6, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 8, 2021
FROM DRAG ARTIST TO THE CREATOR OF DONCASTERS’ ONLY DRAG SHOW FLUID/ITY BIPOLAR ABDUL IS DOING IT ALL FOR DIVERSITY
Drag is one the best known art forms amongst the LGBTQ+ community, from Ru Pauls Drag race blazing through the world and each city having it’s own drag houses, Drag is something that breaks boundaries and outbreaks the performance of gender expression and allowing experimentation with no limits and drag artist Bipolar Abdul is constantly breaking down stereotypes with her work.
To an outsider of the world of Drag, it is traditionally seen as a male man dressing up as a woman, debunking his masculinity and embracing the femininity. However, now within the LGBTQ+ community that stereotype of one gender doing drag has been debunked and now all genders and gender expressions are exploring what it means to do and be a drag artist.
From Yorkshire, Bipolar Abdul is a non binary, fluid, drag artist who rather then looking like a beautiful glamorous fashion queen or woman wants to be seen as a living cartoon and to embrace the fluidity of who they are.
When met with their Instagram page you are met with a work of art in human form, from abstract clothing, brightly coloured makeup and a true art to making herself look out of this world and capturing the true essence of drag.
Bipolar sits down with me to have a chat about her inspiration behind her drag, where it all started and how it allowed her to come to terms with her gender expression.
“I got into drag after loving drag for a long time but thinking I could never do it because I am assigned woman from birth. I went to a drag show and a queen there told me to go for it, so I did.
“Drag is the ability to express myself however I see fit that day. If I’m on top of the world or at my lowest ebb I have the opportunity to channel that into art and that’s really a beautiful thing. It’s the chance to turn life up to eleven are really live your truth,I actually identify as non binary, but didn’t realise until I started doing drag.
“Drag makes me feel alive. It’s as simple as that really. There was my beige life before drag, and now this wonderful kaleidoscope of opportunity.”she says.
Bipolar then goes onto telling us about her looks and how she prefers abstract over beige.
“My favourite looks to do are quite high fashion, I enjoy dressing in ways you never would if you were just nipping to aldi or out for a meal. The weird, the wonderful. I prefer to be more genderless, I have no interest in being pretty or looking like a beautiful woman. I want to be a living cartoon.”
With a supportive family and with feeling like they never have to formally come out Bipolar embraces her no label status, and how it is better to listen to your own desires then what society puts onto you.
“I never actually formally came out. I am pretty fluid in both sexuality and gender expression. I just tell people I’m queer, I don’t really want to put a formal label on things and like I say, I’m pretty fluid so things change and transform through the years.
“To me, being queer is being free. Shedding all the rubbish society has pushed onto you through the years and listening to your own needs and desires.” She adds.
Alongside her drag career Bipolar is the creator and founder of FLUID/ITY the only running drag show night in Doncaster made up of four drag queens.
Running once a month it is a place where drag artists are celebrated and embraced but it also a place for the community and people of all walks of like to come and feel safe, a place which the north was missing.
“We created FLUID/ITY because there was nothing else. It’s more than just a night. It’s a full online presence too. There was a real risk of the LGBTQIA community in Doncaster becoming isolated from each other, or having to go to awful straight bars that were unsafe. It was essential really that we built this empire that was accessible to anyone that needed or wanted it, because lord knows I did
“It was all Doncaster had for a long time, and me and my drag family really pull out all the stops to make sure it’s original and authentic. There’s nothing like it really.” She says
FLUID/ITY has a promising future, with opening an LGBTQIA+ bar which the drag house Bipolar belongs too will be running it, with the FLUID/ITY night running on the first Saturday of every month and with supporting guests like Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK Star Sum Ting Wong on the 31st of July this will be a space where a lot of queer people can go let their hair down, have a dance and be free.
This new queer space and Bipolar Abdul’s work is not to missed with having spent all of lock-down perfecting her skills, she finishes the interview with a small hint of what to expect.
“We’ve all levelled up over lockdown, and are producing some really incredible art, it is not to be missed.”
To find out more about FLUID/ITY Doncaster and the work Bipolar Abdul does click the links below.
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