Chicken tikka cake. © Paul Stanley and Lisa Beauchamp
An art installation made out of a bed is now at a Manchester curry house, but it’s not by Tracey Emin.
Customers visiting Sangam Restaurant will wait to be seated on a ‘pink’ bed covered with incense and Urdu poetry, inspired by the artist's conversations with South Asian women who are lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.
It’s part of a project entitled Mixing it Up: Queering Curry Mile and Currying Canal Street, in which arts collective Sphere are combining aspects of Mancunian identity with places they are not normally associated with. The bed at Sangam (until October 12 2007) challenges the stereotypical view of Canal Street as white, male, and gay, and ‘Curry Mile’ as Asian and heterosexual.
“All the artist projects reflect the limits of visual knowledge as we navigate urban spaces, such as Curry Mile or Canal Street, by mixing up who we might think we will find in these places,” says Alpesh Patel of Sphere.
“Another aim of the project is to mix up where we can find art and who can access it, as well as hopefully mix up viewing audiences.”
A 'pink' bed. © Sphere
Another aspect of the project will be a ‘queer, urban walk’ around Rusholme with the Doorstep Collective. The public are invited to join the walk in which the artists will read out stories they have collected from people on Canal Street, taking them to a different environment. The walk, on October 12, will end with a meal at Sangam’s and some unusual cake.
The cake which will be distributed has an image of chicken tikka kebab on the icing.
“The visual image of the chicken tikka confuses the expected bodily sensation of eating the cakes,” says Alpesh. “It’s a metaphor for how we typically respond to visual stimuli of perceived ‘South Asian’ or ‘gay’ subjects in the city and for how deeply visual images are intertwined with all of our other senses.”
Another bed from the project will be on show at the Whitworth Art Gallery until October 14 2007 and video work by Sphere is being shown at Cornerhouse until November 11.
“We’re over the moon to be involved in Alpesh’s project and think it will be a brilliant experience for our customers,” commented Sangam spokesman Mukhtar Ahmed.
“This is a wonderful way to show people how open minded and tolerant we are as a community.”
