Salacious Invitations
Benjamin Tollestrup
May 21 - July 4, 2008
Reception: May 24, 6-8p

video still, 2008

Tollestrup’s work centres on the concept of play and desire, creating a space where the limits to self become blurred. “I play so that I can exchange and encounter meaning, because the world is subject to revision through play, and because in play I can negotiate desire and experience. I am excited by the edges of desire. It is there that I develop a familiarity with my fantasized expectations as they appear real.” In my projects, I willingly admit the self indulgence of this engagement and while the work is a personal exploration of desire, I hope the concerns raised through the work resonate more broadly.”

Benjamin Tollestrup is a writer, multi-media artist and performer from Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia. He is completeing a Master’s thesis at Queen’s University School of Kinesiology and Health Studies. The project, salacious invitations, is part of an ongoing personal negotiation with language and context in which he focuses on pleasure and relation. As someone who incorporates performance into everyday affairs, his orientation to cultural practice and production is always in negotiation - nothing is necessarily off limits, including scuba diving, cabaret, scholarship, experimental video, and making out.