Article relating to an exhibition, 2010
Published by: The Independent Arts&Books
Year published: 2010
Number of pages: 3

Shock and Awe: The Art of Chris Ofili was the front page of Arts&Books, supplement to The Independent, Friday 22 January 2010. The front page featured a detail of an unidentified Ofili painting. (The painting was Afrodizzia (2nd version) 1996, acrylic, oil, resin, paper collage, glitter, map pins and elephant dung on canvas, 243.8 x 182.8 cm). The feature itself, on pages 4 - 6 of the supplement, related to Ofili’s mid-career retrospective at the Tate Britain, 27 January - 16 May 2010. The first two pages were titled From Sensation to Selfhood, “A major exhibition of Chris Ofili’s work opens at Tate Britain next week. Michael Glover explores the painter’s evolution from shape-shifter and provocateur to raw open talent, while on page 6, Ekow Eshun talks to Ofili about his new-found ‘sense of freedom’ “

Several of Ofili’s paintings (including Afrodizzia) accompany Glover’s piece and two quotes, one from Ofili and the other from Glover are highlighted within the feature. From Ofili: ‘The elephant dung was proving to be a problem. It was too silly and too memorable, in part, too easy a thing to be known and caricatured by’. From Glover: ‘Now that much of the bustle and bother has fallen away, we can see more clearly the nature and extent of the talent he has been gifted with’

The text on page six is extracted from “Ekow Eshun interviews Chris Ofili”, edited by Helen Little in ‘Chris Ofili’ (Tate Publiushing, 2010). Two quotes by Ofili are highlighted: ‘In order for the subject to have any gravity, I have to create a belief in it’, and ‘I have things running through my head a million miles an hour, although it may look like I’m relaxing’ A portrait of Ofili, by the photo agency Eyevine, accompanies the extract.