I let the intrusive thoughts win is a new body of work that continues James Rollo’s exploration into ways of queering objects and spaces by playfully challenging people’s expectations. The resulting anti-objects, visual glitches, and experiential anomalies are for the audience to encounter and question what, exactly, has happened to them—are they still “passing?” This exhibition is the result of the research and experimentation of employing new strategies to manipulate objects, while deepening and expanding Rollo’s continual exploration into the “queer lens”. By responding to the visual landscape, Rollo is creating a tension between the familiar and unfamiliar—blurring their binary of “what they are” and “what they could be perceived as,” while also making the rules of engagement more flexible in a seemingly binary world. This current methodology breaks these objects/spaces out of their status quo and ultimately pushes them into new territories of new understandings. These concepts are important to Rollo’s development as a queer artist and to their community, as it forges new queer perspectives into an art dialogue, increases queer visibility, and challenges the rising anti-2SLGBTI+ sentiment.

“I would like to acknowledge the Toronto Art Council and the Ontario Arts Council for making this exhibition possible, and to YYZ for giving me the opportunity. I also want to thank my super loving partner David Yu for his unwavering support. I would also like to thank my bestie Vanessa Chiu for keeping me fed and driving me all around the GTA, and Philip Ocampo for the kind words. And to all my friends—who I love so very much and who mean the absolute world to me—this exhibition is secretly for you.” – J.R.