Back to list With Åbäke, Jamika Ajalon, Barby Asante &
Andrea Encinas, Ansuman Biswas, David Blandy, Eloïse
Calandre, Gayle Chong Kwan, Carl Clerkin, Charlie Dark,
Kodwo Eshun, Martino Gamper, Intoart, Anthony Joseph,
Lambeth Band of Solidarity, Harun Morrison & Helen
Walker, Harold Offeh, Olivia Plender & Paul
Richards, Julian Roberts, Urban Classicism, and Ming Wong. Art and sci-fi meet in ‘The Mothership
Collective’, a project devised by artist Harold Offeh.
Offeh has invited fellow artists, dancers and musicians
to create an installation and performances with members
of the public inspired by the music of George Clinton
and Sun-Ra. From 1-18 August, a different artist, from
established names to emerging talent, will take over the
SLG with an exceptional hands-on workshop for adults,
children, young people or families. Record your own funk track, become an alien in
Peckham for a day, find your intergalactic soul mate,
write a science fiction story, make your own alien video
message, and more… As the weeks unfold, work from each event will
add to Harold Offeh's art installation, The Mothership
Collective, which will be launched in an evening
celebration on Saturday 19 August with live dance and
music performances devised by Urban Classicism, Barby
Asante and Blacktronica. The installation will be on
display until 27 August, accompanied by a programme of
talks, screenings and events. ‘The Mothership Collective’ is loosely based on
musician and grand funkster George Clinton’s P-Funk
performances of the seventies, which aimed to raise
issues of black consciousness. The P-Funk performances
were characterized by alien space clothing, cosmic
slogans and the adoption of outer space icons in which
the ‘mothership’ played a central part. From P-Funk’s ‘Mothership Connection’ to Sun Ra
and the Arkestra’s ‘Space is the Place’ to more recently
OutKast’s ‘Prototype’ video featuring André 3000 as a
visitor from beyond, there is a playful visual and
musical engagement with issues of racism and identity by
black American musicians. As an artist, Harold Offeh has explored these
histories of engagement with notions of space, Sci-fi
and the alien as analogies used to undermine and
question cultural, racial and social values. ‘The
Mothership Collective’ continues Offeh’s interest
through Ming Wong’s Intergalactic Speed Dating to
Ansuman Biswas’ Inner Space Meditation. This exhibition is supported by the Elephant Trust | 
