{"id":7781,"date":"2017-07-14T09:04:16","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T08:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=7781"},"modified":"2020-09-04T15:50:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T14:50:11","slug":"artist-harold-offeh-on-his-work-with-kettles-yard-and-open-house-cambridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/2017\/07\/14\/artist-harold-offeh-on-his-work-with-kettles-yard-and-open-house-cambridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Harold Offeh on his work with Kettle\u2019s Yard and Open House Cambridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year members of the public and students at North Cambridge Academy chose Harold Offeh as 2017\u2019s Open House Artist in Residence for North Cambridge. Harold will be working with local communities to explore the area from now until the end of September 2017.<\/h2>\n

Harold Offeh<\/a>\u00a0works using\u00a0performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. Offeh often employs humour as a means to confront the viewer with historical narratives and contemporary culture and is interested in the space created by the inhabiting or embodying of history. His current project \u2018Covers\u2019 sees the artist embody images from popular culture in a series of attempts to transform music album sleeves by black singers from the 1970s and \u201980s.<\/p>\n

This June, he led creative workshops with Kettle\u2019s Yard<\/a> at the 40th<\/sup> Arbury Carnival<\/a> and at the Chesterton Festival<\/a>. He will continue to work with us to develop engaging and inspiring projects in collaboration with the community. We spoke to him about his plans for the project, why working with groups appeals to him, and what it is that he loves about Cambridge.<\/p>\n

Can you tell us a little about your work and practice?<\/h3>\n

My work has various outcomes and exists in different forms. I create performances, events, make videos, photos and occasionally objects. But I have a particular approach which involves using performance, collaboration and conversation to develop projects that respond to places, situations and histories. It\u2019s difficult to talk about without being overly specific. My current work tends to bounce between very solo performances, just using my body, to large scale collaborations. I\u2019m now particularly focused on creating collective experiences that involve lots of people.<\/p>\n

What was it that attracted you to the Open House programme?<\/h3>\n

I really liked the opportunity to work with various groups and communities across North Cambridge. There was also a particular personal dimension in that I live in Arbury and it was opportunity to map and navigate the community I live in.<\/p>\n

\n\n\"\"\n
Harold in action at the 40th Arbury Carnival, June 2017<\/div>\n
\"\"\n
<\/i> Back to gallery<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n

Some of your previous work has involved collaboration with community groups and audience participation. Do you enjoy working with other people?<\/h3>\n

Yes, absolutely. For me collaboration and working with groups and individuals is always about creating environments for shared learning. I really like the exchange of knowledge that takes place when working with other people. It\u2019s hard, because you have to compromise and there is a loss of control when you work with other people. I enjoy the challenge of trying to find connections.<\/p>\n

Is there any new information you can share about your final Open House project? What can we look forward to?<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve been trying to draw together a number of strands and points of interest. So, for example, people\u2019s relationships with architecture and space. I\u2019ve also been really fascinated with Jim Ede\u2019s inventory notes which lists in a very eccentric way items in the Kettle\u2019s Yard House. This has led me to think about objects in the domestic space as triggers for memories. I\u2019m thinking about a design-led approach that might involve groups in North Cambridge making a design collection. These objects would then be used as part of gathering or social event in the autumn.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve worked all over the world but have chosen to live in Cambridge. What drew you to this city? What does it offer for creative people and those interested in art?<\/h3>\n

I initially came to Cambridge for personal reasons. My partner is an academic at the university. I\u2019ve been here for three years now and I\u2019m really drawn to the incongruous mix of things you find. The ancient and the sci-tech digital, town and country, provisional and international. It\u2019s also a very theatrical place, it\u2019s a place that exists as much in the imagination as reality. I think for creatives and art lovers you have to explore and dig a bit to fully appreciate the cultural landscape, there are lots of hidden treasures. But most importantly for me it\u2019s a liberal, open and tolerant city that welcomes people. This attitude is something that is going to be increasingly important in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Do you have any other upcoming projects to tell us about?<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m going to be spending part of the summer out in Bourne, doing a residency at\u00a0Wysing Arts Centre<\/a>. I\u2019ll also be performing at Tate Britain for the\u00a0Queer and Here Festival<\/a>\u00a0on the 24th\u00a0June. And throughout the summer I\u2019m showing in a large group exhibition just outside of Paris called \u2018Tous, des sang-m\u00eal\u00e9s (All, mixed-bloods)<\/a>\u2018 at The Val-de-Marne Contemporary Art Museum. The exhibition is on till the 3rd\u00a0September. It\u2019s a great place to visit and see another side of Paris. It\u2019s a real discovery, a huge art museum in this communist suburb of Paris at the end of a metro line.<\/p>\n

Open House\u00a0will be working with Harold Offeh until September 2017.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This has been an extract from an interview on the Kettle\u2019s Yard website. To read the full interview with Harold Offeh, and to find out more about Open House Cambridge, visit: http:\/\/www.kettlesyard.co.uk\/about\/news\/interview-harold-offeh\/<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year members of the public and students at North Cambridge Academy chose Harold Offeh as 2017\u2019s Open House Artist in Residence for North Cambridge. Harold will be working with local communities to explore the area from now until the end of September 2017. Harold Offeh\u00a0works using\u00a0performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. Offeh often employs humour as a… Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":7783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165,168,166,369],"tags":[221,218,216],"coauthors":[234],"class_list":["post-7781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engagement","category-kettles-yard","category-making-change","category-museum-life","tag-access-inclusion","tag-cultural-value","tag-society"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7781"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7786,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7781\/revisions\/7786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7781"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}