New monograph exploring artist Harold Offeh's dynamic practice since the early 2000's, with essays and a new photographic series.
Mmm, Gotta Try a Little Harder, It Could Be Sweet is the first institutional solo exhibition of work by Harold Offeh in the UK. This fully illustrated book documents two decades of video, performance and collaborative projects by the artist, as well as a new series of photographs depicting Offeh re-performing works in his archive. Offeh's work interrogates our acceptance of social, political and racial models in society, often drawing inspiration from mainstream music, film and media. The title of the exhibition is taken from lyric by the British band Portishead and corresponds to three thematic sections of the exhibition: Mmm, a new multi-channel sound installation, Gotta Try a Little Harder considers Offeh's use of performance as an investigative tool and It Could Be Sweet looks at the artists participatory and collaborative works on themes of desire, utopianism, queer identity and acts of resistance. The book includes a preface by Lubaina Himid and new essays by Sepake Angiama, David. A. Bailey, Anna Khimasia and Harold Offeh.
5 Lubaina Himid
Preface
7 Harold Offeh
A Self-Interview with Harold and Offeh
9 Projects: 19992025
Workshops
62 Projects: 19992025 (continued)
137 Anna Khimasia
Smile, Though Your Heart Is Breaking: Harold Offehs Early Performance Work
141 David A. Bailey
The Sculptural Performative Work of Harold Offeh
145 Sepake Angiama
Mmmmm Harold Offeh
149 Guy Haywood and Andrew Nairne
Afterword
150 Image Credits
151 Chronology
154 Author Biographies
155 Acknowledgements
Born in Zanzibar in 1954, Lubaina Himid is a British painter who has dedicated her thirty-year-long career to uncovering marginalised and silenced histories, figures, and cultural moments. Himid is deeply engaged with the problem of the lack of representation of Black and Asian women in the art world, and she has been committed to showing the work of underrepresented contemporaries. Himid lives and works in Preston, UK and is a professor at the University of Central Lancashire. She was awarded the Turner Prize in 2017 and was made a CBE for services to art in the 2018 Queens Birthday Honours. She has exhibited extensively in the UK and abroad. David A. Bailey MBE, is a British Afro-Caribbean curator, photographer, writer and cultural facilitator, living and working in London. Among his main concerns are the notions of diaspora and black representation in art. Sepake Angiama is the artistic director of the institute for international visual arts which is home to the Stuart Hall Library in east London, a rich resource for a globalised discourse on the curatorial and artistic practice of artists and curators from Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Diaspora. iniva's primary focus is to centre the voices of African, Caribbean, Asian & Diaspora artists and their communities. Anna Khimasia is an independent educator, curator and cultural worker. Her curatorial focus is contemporary art, performance and alternative practices with a commitment to inclusion, diversity and equity. She received her Ph.D. from the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture here at Carleton University (2015). Guy Haywood is Curator & Exhibition Manager at Kettles Yard, and is responsible for the development and delivery of exhibitions and artistic projects. He also oversees the management and care of the collection. Since joining Kettles Yard he has been involved in organising over 40 major exhibitions, projects and commissions. His interests lie in 21st century contemporary art and culture with a focus on performance and interdisciplinary practices.
