Let’s Talk About Chemsex - Manchester Art Gallery Takeover

An unashamedly electro-synth fantasy that speaks directly to anticipation, desire and sex. We hear multiple voices calling for needs and desires as anticipation and expectation of fulfilment build. However, the dance beats take us to another place. The track highlights not only a real need for unconditional acceptance and personal freedom but also associated anxiety and fears.

An extended laid back 8-minute track that speaks of longing and desire. The track is a mellow musing on an absence of intimacy. Contemplative and reflective, the voices speak like a stream of consciousness. “Paddling in the warmth of possibility” the track invites and seduces listeners to reflect on their own longings, desires, hopes and fears.  

Sam Cottingham is an artist and writer based between London and Frankfurt. His written work takes form as plays, novellas and short stories and his artistic work spans painting, sculpture, video and installation. His work explores themes of desire and queer intimacy.  

Valentin Ranger is a French artist whose work describes the landscape that inhabits his mind as a “huge opera”. With a background in theatre, Ranger first found the confidence to assume himself as he was, before coming up against the limits of the human body. 

Daniel Rey is a Venezuelan-Spanish artist living and working in London. Through installation, performance, moving images and painting, Rey’s work explores ways to challenge conventional constructs of masculinity rooted in patriarchal societies and the relationship between queer bodies and the built environment. 

mandla rae is a Zimbabwean writer and performer who has a selective memory and is scrambling to piece together a life mostly forgotten in the name of survival. Through the exploration of mandla’s fragmented LGBTQ asylum and childhood migration memories, as British as a watermelon asks powerful questions about belonging, trauma and forgiveness. 

Ghetto Fabulous is a dance and visual arts company that aims to excite, entertain and have fun with the projects it embarks on, inspired by fashion, music, film, photography and the ever-changing world.  Not afraid to explore the political and the personal, The Ghetto Collection is a unique voice in the UK art landscape.