Article relating to an individual, 1996
Published by: Dazed & Confused
Year published: 1996
Number of pages: 2

Early feature on Chris Ofili, that appeared in Dazed & Confused, Issue 21, June 1996, pp. 26-27. The feature was written by Martin Herbert and consisted of an exchange between Dazed & Confused and Chris Ofil, introduced as “Ofili’s lush abstractions and quasi-figurations incorporate the stools of the noble African elephant as both cultural signifier and decorative aspect, a feature which has tended to obscure attention to the more delicate undercurrents of art. The issue of personal identity, the pursuit of beauty, and, in Ofili’s latest show of paintings at Victoria Miro gallery, the pervasive influence of music, especially jazz.”

As with pretty much all features on Ofili, over a period of a number of years from the mid 1990s onwards, it was Ofili’s asscociations with elephant dung which were most used as props within these features. This article was no exception. ‘The rumour is that when painters get together they talk about brands of turpentine and brushes. Conversations with Chris Ofili tend to resolve around another subject; elephant shit.’

The exchange began as follows:

Dazed & Confused: Jazz has fed into the content of your art…
Chris Ofili: A lot of what I’m doing now has more of a hip hop flavour. But jazz has this feeling of strong structre, mixed with the opposite, improvisation.

The accompanying full-page portrait of Ofili was taken by Dean Chalkey.