Manchester Open Door Tour with VIL

Unfortunately, this event has been cancelled. Bookers will be contacted in due course.

Join us for a tour of the Manchester Open with VIL, who will explore decadence, debauchery, and decay within the exhibition. Known for her expertise in gender and gothic themes, VIL’s insights promise to offer a thought-provoking perspective on the artworks.

About VIL
VIL is a Mancunian visual artist and trans showgirl, with an interest in body politics, drag and fashion. VIL’s work traverses both the stage and the canvas. Originally an oil painter, she found herself limited to what is traditionally a two dimensional surface, and feeling the need for a more versatile medium, she settled on drag, which is now her foremost outlet.

VIL has performed up and down the UK, bringing her concepts to life through Performance Art and Costuming with a strong emphasis on gender and, sequentially, its subversion. As a Master of English and Art History from the University of St Andrews, her practice is greatly influenced by historic literature, theatre and paintings, largely of the nineteenth century, at a time when gender was equally as contested as it is today. The crux of VIL’s expression, her drag, painting and poetry is her identity as a trans woman and the different ways in which such an abstract experience can be articulated.