Events

Safe space closed group session

Preceding the public panel discussion on the same day at Manchester Art Gallery, there will be an intimate group session hosted by artist Harold Offeh. No more than 10 people, who may have had difficult or problematic experiences of chemsex, are invited to a safe space to share, connect and discuss.

The activities in the group session are designed to create a playful but sensitive environment to talk about understandings of queer intimacy, desire, and consent. Contributions will be anonymous, and consent will be sought for any audio/visual contributions.

Please email [email protected] if you would like more information or are interested in taking part.

Sunday 27 August 2023

12-1.30pm

Manchester Art Gallery

Free

More information about the project and artist

QTIPOC artist Harold Offeh is developing a collaborative year-long visual arts project that, working directly with people with lived experience, will explore different perspectives and experiences of Chemsex. The project’s wider aim is to explore the role intimacy and consent plays in queer sex and relationships. Using workshops, talks and performance the project will visually map and survey a diverse range of experiences without guilt, shame, or stigma.

Commissioned by Portraits of Recovery and supported by Manchester Art Gallery and Superbia.

An event as part of Recoverist Month Sept 2023

Recoverist = recovery + activist

Harold Offeh is an artist working in a range of media including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. Offeh is interested in the space created by the inhabiting or embodying of histories. He employs humour as a means to confront the viewer with historical narratives and contemporary culture. He has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally including Tate Britain and Tate Modern, South London Gallery, Turf Projects, London, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, Wysing Art Centre, Studio Museum Harlem, New York, MAC VAL, France, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark and Art Tower Mito.

Offeh studied Critical Fine Art Practice at The University of Brighton, MA Fine Art Photography at the Royal College of Art and recently completed a PhD by practice exploring the activation of Black Album covers through durational performance. He lives in Cambridge and works in London, UK. He previously held the role of Reader in Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University and was a visiting tutor at Goldsmiths College and The Slade School of Art, UCL, London. He is currently a tutor in MA Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art.

Portraits of Recovery (PORe)

PORe is a pioneering visual arts charity in Manchester. We work with leading contemporary artists and people and communities (Recoverists) affected by and in recovery from substance use to create high quality inspirational art.

We are the UK’s only contemporary visual arts organisation in this field. By working collaboratively with leading contemporary artists, people, and communities in recovery, we share the human face of the recovery experience – breaking down barriers and promoting inclusion. Addiction does not discriminate. Addiction is a health, social and cultural issue.

Our key stakeholders, people in recovery from substance use, engage with and create high quality inspirational art as a critical part of their recovery journey. Our work is inclusive, activist, durational and process based. Through culture we build ambition by empowering a stigmatised community to enable systemic change.

Without guilt, shame, or stigma, call our Let’s Talk About Chemsex voicemail care-line on 0161 850 7852 Leave a message about your thoughts and feelings on Chemsex, or themes of consent, HIV, and queer intimacy. These anonymous recordings will contribute to an audio archive for informing ongoing project development. All reflections welcome!

The Let’s Talk About Chemsex, telephone voicemail care-line forms part of artist Harold Offeh’s year-long project exploring the queer communities’ broad experiences of sex on Chems.