Mindfully Dizzy
2019 Science Gallery, London, UK

'Mindfully Dizzy' was commissioned for the Science Gallery London's 'On Edge' exhibition, and is the development of a work Offeh was originally commissioned to produce for Hospital Rooms.

Working with patients from the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit at Bethlem Royal Hospital, Offeh explored the value of paying focused attention to the overwhelming possibilities of our external environment. The participants mapped their experience of their immediate surroundings through detailed rubbings of the architectural surfaces, which were then incorporated into a dizzying lenticular pattern by the artist, designed to alter visitors’ experience of Science Gallery London’s architectural environment.

An additional audio work combines samples from jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie’s track, 'A Dizzy Atmosphere', with readings of various definitions of the words ‘dizzy’ and ‘mindfulness’. This audio work has since been performed live with Offeh, additional performers and a trumpeter.

Through both works Offeh proposes an approach to “mindfulness” - the mental process of paying attention to the present moment, a practice often used by people to reduce stress and anxiety, whilst making reference to a quote by philosopher Søren Kierkegaard – “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom” – proposing that anxiety could be attributed to the dizzy feeling one might get when they are about to step into the unknown; a feeling of uncertainty, but opportunity.

Mindfully Dizzy was performed live at the Science Gallery, London 2019 with performers Harold Offeh, Isabel Tannant, Maya Sherpa and Gabriel Bristow. Photo courtesy of the Science Gallery