Robert meets Harold Offeh, 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.
We discuss Harold Offeh’s TRUSTFUL STRANGERS INDUCE FEARLESS WALKS, the third iteration of the Paddington Square x The Showroom annual billboard commission. The project developed from a series of workshops and conversations between Offeh and a group of young people from The Showroom’s Imagining Futures programme.
Through a process of gathering materials, collage, role-play and writing, they explored the idea of public space and the importance of building communities that care and look out for each other, fostering trust in strangers.
In generating the phrase ‘Trustful Strangers Induce Fearless Walks’ they created a statement that speaks to their hopeful desire to increase empathy and mutual trust between anonymous passers-by as they encounter each other in London’s streets and public spaces.
The work is presented on a giant billboard at Paddington Square on the corner of Tanner Lane and Praed Street, extending beyond the billboard’s physical borders via audio clips of spoken-word, poetry, streams of consciousness, reflections and song by the young collaborators. These are accessible via a QR code onsite.
The billboard stands in dialogue with Offeh’s exhibition at The Showroom TRUSTFUL STRANGERS INDUCE FEARLESS ALIENS which brings together a selection of works from Offeh’s 25-year practice; confronting dominant histories and present-day cultural norms. The exhibition runs until 15 August.
Together the two presentations look back and look forward, positioning imagination as a powerful tool for creating more hopeful futures.
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.
He 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 the Head of Programme in MA Contemporary Art Practice and a visiting lecturer in MA Print at the Royal College of Art.
Follow: @Harold_Offeh
Visit: https://haroldoffeh.com
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