Chris Ofili at Tate Britain
by Stuart Clark
What do you get if you cross Zimbabwean cave paintings, blaxploitation and elephant dung? Chris Ofili’s retrospective at the Tate, that’s what.
I went to see this exhibition a couple of weeks ago. I like to try and see modern art whenever I can. It’s one of the many ways I kid myself that I’m an intellectual. I like the challenge of standing in front of something I don’t really understand, and seeing what I make of it.
The Chris Ofili exhibition is certainly challenging.
The exhibition is divided into 7 rooms. The first couple are full of his early work, the stuff that won him the Turner Prize back in 1998.
These pieces are all about challenging stereotypical representations of black culture – combining Afro celebration, hip hop and gangsta rap, with pornography and Biblical imagery.
You get titles like 7 Bitches Tossing their Pussies Before the Divine Dung, The 
Adoration of Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black Stars and Pimpin’ ain’t easy – works that mix and match close-up porno shots, Blaxploitation graphics and the faces of gangsta rappers, then daub them with lacquered balls of elephant dung.
Ah yes, the elephant dung. This is the Chris Ofili gimmick, his USP if you like. Aesthetically, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it all. They looked a bit plonked on to me. Maybe the point is something to do with the African origins of modern black culture. Or maybe, like all good USPs, it’s just a way of attracting attention.
It’s outrageous and provocative; where the profound meets the lewd, yet there are moments of real poignancy too. One piece, No Woman, No Cry, depicts a crying woman – the teardrops formed from collaged pictures of the murdered black teenager, Stephen Lawrence.
At the centre of the exhibition is a darkened chamber called the Upper Room. It’s basically a series of 13 lit, Warhol-style images of the Hindu God Hanuman – each one individually and vibrantly coloured. The paintings are stood in a kind of wooden shrine, giving the whole experience a really religious quality – a worship of colours, perhaps. 
Rooms 4 and 6 are the ones I found most interesting. Here the artist is working within strict limitations. First there is a series of romantic scenes painted only in the red, black and green colours of the pan-African union flag.
Then in Room 6 there are paintings composed in a limited palette of deep blues and silvers. Ofili painted these pictures during a residency in Trinidad. There a genuine eeriness about them. You can barely make out what they are supposedto be of, like straining your eyes to look for something moving in the dark.
These were my favourites. They were a stark contrast to the earlier works. More subdued but somehow more powerful for that.
I guess in the end art is a personal thing and you make of it what you will. But if you are in London before 16th May, I’d recommend a trip to the Tate. It’s well worth a look.
Tags: Africa, Art and Advertising, Black culture, Chris Ofili, Hanuman, Hindu, Hip-hop, Marketing and art, no cry, No woman, Porno, Tate Britain, Trinidad, Turner Prize, USP, Zimbabwea
