Harold Offeh's 'Trustful Strangers Induce Fearless Aliens' at The Showroom

Harold Offeh's exhibition 'Trustful Strangers Induce Fearless Aliens' at The Showroom in London (26 June – 15 August 2026) brings together selected works from 25 years of his practice, examining the figures of the stranger and the alien. The show includes a billboard commission, 'Trustful Strangers Induce Fearless Walks', created with young people from The Showroom's Imagining Futures programme, which shifts public safety conversations away from victim-blaming. In an interview with ART AFRICA, Offeh discusses the evolution of his work from solo performances like 'Alien at Large' (2001) to collaborative, site-specific projects, his use of humour as an engagement tool, the ethics of participation, and the importance of imagination in fostering alternative futures. He references James Baldwin's 'Stranger in the Village' (1953), which inspired an installation made during a 2019 residency in Japan. Offeh emphasizes the need for agency and support structures in participatory art, and the role of performance's liveness in activating historical contexts. The exhibition and billboard together call for collective care and responsibility among strangers.