Welcome to The Lounge
The Lounge: a site-specific installation by multi-disciplinary artist Harold Offeh co-created with the local community and exhibited at the Lightbox Gallery in late 2024.
Harold Offeh hosted a series of workshops for the local community to explore the meaning of ‘home’ and co-created elements of The Lounge with them. Visitors to the exhibition were invited to contribute to the artwork over three months.
We commissioned The Lounge in partnership with the Lightbox Gallery in Woking.
Clandon and the Lightbox Gallery
We’re working in partnership with the Lightbox on W for Woking, a live commissioning collaboration that invites artists and community groups to bring our social history to life.
As Kiki Claxton, our Experiences and Partnerships Curator, explains, “We knew that we both wanted to work with artists in different ways. There’s a historical connection between the two sites through the Onslow family, so there are many layers in both collections to connect with all our visitors.
“Taking our stories and our collections out to reach more people is something that is important to us. Clandon isn’t fixed to the physical location of the house and garden.”
Using our stories and collections, Offeh’s social arts practice explores ways to understand the connection between the past and present.
What is social practice?
Social practice keeps people at the heart of a creative process through collaboration. Artists working in social practice work with groups to co-create an artwork for others to enjoy.
The purpose of social practice is to make sure people who take part are heard and they feel valued as they engage with the topics and ideas being explored in the artwork.
“Inviting people to take a creative journey breaks down barriers and enables them to connect to different subjects in ways they feel comfortable with,” says Kiki.
We co-wrote an artist brief with the Lightbox team and approached artists who are specialists in social practice to send proposals. Harold Offeh was selected for the first commission.
Meet Harold Offeh
Harold Offeh is an artist working in a range of media including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. Harold is interested in the space created by the inhabiting or embodying of histories. He employs humour to confront the viewer with historical narratives and contemporary culture.
Harold started by visiting Clandon and the Lightbox, exploring both collections. From here, he developed the concept of ‘home’ and what the idea could represent. Clandon was a family home historically and is still home to a wide range of histories. As Harold discovered in the workshops, everybody can relate to some aspect of home.
Creative workshops
Harold designed three different workshops focussing on different aspects of home and worked with students from the Orpheus Centre, young people from the Amber Foundation, and volunteers from Clandon and the Lightbox.
Through workshops and visits, the participants learnt more about the history of Clandon and of Woking and the communities who have made their homes here for centuries. Harold asked open questions about home. What does home mean to them? What’s their experience of home?
They responded with sketches and thoughts which started the collaborative process of reimagining the inviting room at the heart of a home – the lounge.
The Lounge
Harold and his design team designed a contemporary mini lounge, integrating aspects of our collection and history the individuals were particularly interested in. Delft tiles, elements of the temple that was in Woking, and James Naylor's space-age chair were all included.
Inspired by the past and reflecting the present, the exhibition featured wallpaper, furniture, and seating covered in the workshop participants designs. The Lounge created a diverse, rich sense of what home meant to them.
Visitors were invited to create their own image of home using stamps and pens, which they could add to the wall. Everything in the exhibition was co-created and curated by the visitors, workshop participants, and Harold.
W for Woking has received funding from Esmee Fairbairn Collections Fund, National Lottery Heritage Fund, National Trust, Arts Council England, and Lightbox Gallery.
You might also be interested in
Ceramicist Rich Miller to celebrate the craftspeople of Clandon Park in a major new commission
Ceramicist Rich Miller to celebrate the craftspeople of Clandon Park in a major new commission. The National Trust has commissioned ceramicist, artist and TV presenter Rich Miller to lead a major new arts project at Clandon Park, which will reflect on the skills and experiences of the people who built the 18th century Palladian mansion, and those who are now helping to bring it back to life.
Surviving treasures at Clandon Park
From small ceramics to historic wallpaper, some of Clandon’s treasures live on after the fire to tell their stories of that fateful event.
Ten years of making at Clandon Park
29th April 2025 is the tenth anniversary of the fire that transformed Clandon Park. We’re marking the day by showcasing 10 years of making at Clandon, sharing stories from the people bringing Clandon back to life.
