This photo series is a response to Singapore’s Senior Minister of State Josephine Teo’s response to the chicken-and-egg issue on whether young couples should get a flat first or child first before having the other (spoiler: she’s a child-first-before-you-can-get-a-flat supporter).

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“You don’t need much space to have sex” explores the intricate and complicated layers of selfhood in the context of Singapore’s anti-queer colonial legacy section 377A of the penal code on gay sex and sodomy, Singapore’s ironically progressive yet “conservative” milieu when it comes to sex and one’s queer orientation.

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Off-kilter colour inversion and contrast represents the stark tension between institution and self; a power struggle to assert one’s identity in spaces both restrictive yet liberating. It is alien yet familiar; crude yet tender. Some of the images rope you in as a participant, while others are more discreet and voyeuristic.

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The images are all composites of me, a reflection of how these encounters are usually self-serving, but sometimes there are fleeting moments of tenderness in these mindless bacchanal sessions. Because, for young queer people, getting a flat is out of question, much more a child, and this is how we show Josephine Teo that most queer people have been doing this for ages and its a territory we all know far too well. We don’t really need much space to have sex, a toilet cubicle would suffice.