Benjamin Sebastian is a performance artist and curator who uses the visual poetics of the erotic and explicit as an anarcho-queer-feminist tool to dismantle narratives of heteronormativity, patriarchy and capitalism. Benjamin will be presenting their solo performance NB/GNC: Mourning Call as part of our New Queers on the Block weekend of LGBTQ+ art and performance.
Tell us what audiences can expect from your show / event?
A performance art work somewhere between a rite, ritual and memorial.
What inspired you most when you were creating this work?
Voice. Primarily, its potential to fill or occupy space while remaining invisible and ephemeral. I had been thinking a lot about how a majority of people (queers included) seemed to still hold to this tendency of 'judging a book by its cover', which led me to think about the erasure many non-binary people experience through the actions of both heterosexist & queer(ed) people alike.
You're performing at Folkestone Quarterhouse as part of the New Queers on the Block weekend of LGBTQ+ performance. What is the influence of your queerness in your work?
My queerness is critical and strategic. It is my personal story that I will share only with those I choose, as well as inter-subjective reality constantly on show. Queerness influences my work by making it critical (of queerness as well as heteronormativity) and by making it a strategy of resistance; to both hetero & homonormative cultures.
Tell us a bit about how you became to be an artist
Self exploration, sex, drugs, art school... More self exploration, more sex, more drugs - getting a studio after art school & hanging out with rad people who challenge and support me.
Anything else you'd like to say to the good people of Folkestone?
The view from your cruising ground is in my top 5.
NB/GNC: Mourning Call plays on Saturday 2 November, 6pm at digital:glassworks as part of New Queers on the Block.
Pay What You Decide. Book tickets here.