Harold Offeh
Harold Offeh was born in Accra, Ghana in 1977 and grew up in London, UK. He is interested in the space created by the inhabiting or embodying of history. His work encompasses performance, social practice, video and photography, often using humour as a means to confront the viewer with aspects of contemporary culture and history.He studied at the University of Brighton and the Royal College of Art, London. Recently Offeh has approached the themes of service and Afro hair culture through collective live engagements with other artists, performers and community participation. He has shown widely both in the UK and abroad. He lives in Cambridge and works in London and Leeds where he is a senior lecturer in Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University.
Lounging Covers, 2017
Lounging is an extension of Offeh's ongoing series covers. Covers has explored representations of black figures as depicted on album sleeves from the 70s and 80s as a starting point for a series of live and documented performative re-enactments.
Lounging is a new series produced while on residency at the wysing arts centre in Cambridgeshire, UK. The series specifically focuses on the depictions of black men on album covers in a repose or lounging. The pose was a popular trope for black singers in the 80s. In the photographic series Offeh tries to unpack the work by re-positioning the series in various locations. The work attempts to explore representations of the black male body.
