Harold’s Exhibition
I discovered Harold Offeh’s exhibition at Turf in the Whitgift Centre in Croydon. He had been asked to respond to a number of
objects from the Museum of Croydon, and I discovered our shared interest in Croydon Pride 1993.
The following t-shirt and patch were acquired for this exhibition from Turf.
Croydon Plays Itself was an exhibition displaying artist Harold Offeh’s responses to objects and figures in Croydon’s past. Through the process of learning about these objects and their histories, Harold was able to artistically respond to them by reanimating their existences and reflecting them onto a contemporary Croydon landscape.
Performance, photography and film were just some of the ways he responded, and his interest in social arts and learning led to collaborative creative responses, including posters that were made with students from the Croydon School of Art.
The most striking part of the exhibition was the stunning installation itself, involving block coloured walls in highly saturated colours in pink, purple and yellow. Turf’s position in the Whitgift centre influenced the installation’s retail display style, creating a fine art-retail hybrid, with prints, t-shirts and patches available to buy.
Harold had been inspired by the Croydon Pride 1993 Events Programme, and had breathed life back into it’s memory by reissuing the t-shirt that had originally been sold in 1993. The event was celebrating 21 years since the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) formed and had started to meet in pubs across Croydon. 21 years signified the current age of consent for gay men at the time.
The original t-shirts were designed by an artist named ‘Jae’ who also worked behind the bar of the Bird-in-Hand, a gay friendly pub on Sydenham Road. ‘Ken and Gerry’ who also worked at the bar were thanked for their assistance in printing the merchandise, which were produced in a limited edition of 75, available in Large and XLarge and cost £6.50 each. All profits went back into the community to help groups that Croydon Pride supported, notably the ACE Project which was dedicated to providing services for those affected by HIV.
Visit documentation of Harold’s exhibition on the Turf Website
Visit Harold’s website, where you can find his other work.