Join artist Harold Offeh and curator Jarelle Francis for a conversation exploring the conceptual frameworks that underpin Offeh’s exhibition TRUSTFUL STRANGERS INDUCE FEARLESS ALIENS. Taking African-American writer James Baldwin’s 1953 essay Stranger in the Village as a point of departure, alongside other key influences on Offeh’s practice, the discussion will consider how the figure of the “stranger” continues to shape experiences of race, belonging, memory and public life.
Bringing Baldwin’s reflections into dialogue with Offeh’s 25-year interdisciplinary practice and Francis’s research into transnational histories and cultural exchange, the conversation will explore how performance, curatorial practice and collective participation can challenge dominant histories and create new spaces for dialogue around race, belonging, memory and public life.
About Harold Offeh
Harold Offeh (b. 1977, Ghana) lives and works in Cambridge and London. Working across 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, grappling with issues such as colonialism, the dynamics of work, labour and gender, and ideals of masculine power. Offeh has exhibited widely, including at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, South London Gallery, Turf Projects, Kettle’s Yard, Wysing Art Centre, Studio Museum Harlem, MAC VAL, France, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark, Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, and Art Tower Mito. His major survey, Mmm Gotta Try a Little Harder, It Could Be Sweet, was recently exhibited at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. Offeh is currently the Head of Programme in MA Contemporary Art Practice and a visiting lecturer in MA Print at the Royal College of Art, London.
About Jarelle Francis
Jarelle Francis is a curator with an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art. He works as an Exhibitions Assistant at Tate Modern and has previously held the same position at The Centre for British Photography. After curating independently for several years which led to working with organisations including Kensington and Chelsea Art Week and Bernie Grant Arts Centre- Jarelle founded Meadow in 2023, a nomadic project space which works with emerging artists to produce new solo exhibitions.
This event is organised as part of the public programme for Harold Offeh’s exhibition TRUSTFUL STRANGERS INDUCE FEARLESS ALIENS and is supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
