A project that challenges the cultural and geographical divide between city's gay village and it's South Asian community, opens in Manchester.

Working with paper, fabric and video, Shanaz Gulzar, Maya Chowdhury and Jaheda Choudhury offer a voice to an otherwise invisible South Asian lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered community.

Video work presented in the foyer as part of Sphere: dreamz features anonymous women, captured only in silhouette.

The project provided a secure environment in which they could speak openly about their sexuality and the result is a rare, candid look into an often hidden life.

The manipulated, abstract footage also features imagery taken from the first Sphere: dreamz installation in Sackville Park in 2006.

Organza drapes used in the initial open-air event will be used to dress the windows of Cornerhouse's ground floor bar throughout the exhibition, one printed with the silhouette of a woman interviewed in the video and two left plain in contrasting colours.

Specially produced wallpaper will feature treated shots from the video and then used to decorate one wall of the Café Bar, creating a mural that is sympathetic to the same powerful messages contained in the video.

The exhibition is part of a wider project titled Mixing It Up, with Shanaz, Maya and Jaheda joining other artists exhibiting work in a number of gallery and non-gallery venues from Sangam Restaurant on the Curry Mile to Urbis in the city centre via Oxford Road and Canal Street.

The project mixes up the concept of where we expect art to be seen and forces interaction between the two communities by placing symbols of Canal Street's gay culture in Rusholme and vice versa.

Cornerhouse Projects is an ongoing series of exhibitions in and around Cornerhouse featuring new work by emerging artists based in the North West.

Sphere: Dreamz can be seen at Manchester's Cornerhouse between Fri 7 September - Sun 11 November.

4:28pm Thursday 30th August 2007

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