The Chris Ofili Exhibition

It is hard to decide at the Chris Ofili exhibition whether the subject or medium was more shocking, for the medium consisted of Elephant dung and the subject although its surface was quite sexual, exaggerated and even stereotypical, it was in fact much more complex. Some of the questions I would like to explore are, when does expressing identity become representing racism? Why does he want to stereotype his own culture/ethnicity? And, do these works represent a black Male's identity in the 20Th century?
At first you have to decide whether this is a celebration of the black community or something else. Some of the stereotypes Ofili is documenting are that society views the black community as being primitive and overly sexual- hence the elephant dung. What Ofili is expressing are not his own views and interpretations about his culture but societies. His work is a caricature of the way people categorize black people, which is racism. And seeing all of these pieces in a room is overwhelming and offensive- and the mentality is so wrong. He made a very primitive looking head out of the elephant feces and stuck teeth into it, which he named "The Doll Head Made Out of Shit." As if black girls play with dolls head made out of shit.
He depicts the Holy Virgin in one of the images, who is black (which even in modern day is rare and controversial) and has elephant dung breasts and there are coll aged images surrounding her of other women holding apart their genitals. The way he paints her is how people used to represent black people while slavery and segregation were and are occurring with huge red lips, a wide nose and big white eyes. It is like he is shoving fertility down our throats but in a overly sexual, none maternal way.
He then moves on to depict black males in society's view. "Two Doo VooDoo"- In the States in New Orleans there is this myth about voodoo magic in the black culture. Typically in films people go to a black woman's home that has a curtain made out of sea shells and animal skulls lying around and she can do dark magic/ good as well. But in Disney's latest movie, The Princess and The Frog, this film depicts that stereotype of black religion and mystery and dark magic. Another title that depicted a black male was "Pimpin' ain't easy," the man had a huge penis in it. When slavery ended in the States but segregation continued, whites would frequently lynch blacks and sometimes afterward they would castrate them. These are stereotypes yes, that black men have huge penises, but maybe these pieces are depicting fears as well. This is more than just categorizing, it is showing how maybe white people don't understand, and rather than trying to understand they simply just stereotype. It is more than stereotyping though- it is racism. The titles remind me of those old radio stations hosted by suave black men. These pieces do not represent any form of a black male in the 20th century, but it is funny because they do remind me of characters from films. Like in the film, "Norbert" there are two pimps who have on the crazy clothing. And like I said the old radio stations depicted in films. I watched an interview with Chris Ofili and he stated that he studied American gangster rap, and films as well that depicted pimps and black prostitution.
The exhibition then moves on to show more fears but this time from a black woman's perspective. The other paintings, the men and women in them usually had Afros, but in this piece "Foxy Roxy" has straight blonde hair and blue eyes, like she is trying to look more white and less black. And in the piece "No Woman, No Cry," he has an image of Stephen Lawrence in his mother's tears. He was brutally killed. It then takes a turn which I didn't expect. The next rooms really goes deeper into this idea/fear and shows the torture and daily fear of being black. Of being chased by dogs and killed because of the color of your skin. There is no more elephant dung on these images, for they are no longer representing someone else's mindset, but the artist's mind set. In this interview he gives, he talks about "black life" in the 70s and 80s. He starts out talking about Snoop Dog and the "disgusting" things he rapped about but how it was cool and people wanted to be apart of it, "Pimpin' Ain't Easy," but then starts discussing "No Woman, No Cry." Even the colors are drastically different. They are no longer bright and fun but dark.

"Somehow through the exploration of race we can get to a new place a new form of understanding. Somehow we can maybe even eploit the misunderstandings."