Lounging, After Teddy Pendergrass, (Wysing Garden)

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Whitehall

This is one of three works by Harold Offeh from his Lounging series in the Collection, in which we see the artist adopting Teddy Pendergrass's lounging pose from his 1981 album It's Time For Love. Pendergrass's carefully calibrated pose is recontextualised in scenes from the Cambridgeshire countryside, produced during the artist’s residency at the Wysing Arts Centre. The lounging pose was a popular trope for black male singers in the 1980s, which Offeh explores in the context of rural and sculptural references. These works have been exhibited at Firstsite, Colchester (2019) and Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (2018).

The Lounging series (2017-2020), is an extension of Harold Offeh’s other ongoing series Covers, underpinned by his interest in iconic album covers, particularly the representations of black figures in the 70s and 80s. Offeh uses this source material as a starting point for both live and documented performative re-enactments.

Born in Accra, Ghana, Harold Offeh grew up in London. He studied Critical Fine Art Practice at the University of Brighton (1996–99), Fine Art Photography at the Royal College of Art (1999–2001), and completed a PhD by practice at Leeds Beckett University (2014-20). He lives in Cambridge and teaches at art colleges in London and Leeds. His first solo exhibition was at the Kulturhuset, Stockholm (2008) and he has since exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including at: Studio Museum Harlem, New York (2013); Tate Britain (2014, 2017) and Tate Modern (2013); Museet for Samtidkunst, Roskilde, Denmark (2016); Museum of Contemporary Art, Val de Marne, France (2017); South London Gallery (2018, 2020); Kettle's Yard, Cambridge (2018); and Art Tower Mito, Japan (2019). ‘Hail the New Prophets’ will see Offeh realise his first major public sculpture as part of the Bold Tendencies exhibition in Peckham, London (2021). Offeh was the recipient of the 2019 Paul Hamlyn Visual Arts Award.

Places

Subjects

self-portrait, grass, tree, man, garden

Materials & Techniques

photographic paper, colour photograph, photographic print

Artist

Harold Offeh (1977 - )

Title

Lounging, After Teddy Pendergrass, (Wysing Garden)

Date

2018

Medium

photograph

Dimensions

height: 56.2 cm; width: 76.5 cm; depth: 3.2 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the artist March 2021, through the Art XUK project 2020-21

Provenance

The artist; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 18 March 2021

GAC number

18932