Chris Ofili
Ofili is considered part of the second generation of Young British Artists (YBAs). He rose to fame in the late 1990s when Charles Saatchi, a broker of contemporary art, exhibited his work along with the work of other YBAs. Ofili can be considered a Nigerian affiliated artist because of his heritage, but has lived and worked abroad for his entire life. In his work produced between 1992 and 2003, Ofili commonly incorporated elephant dung. He fist encountered the dung on a trip to Zimbabwe and brought it back with him, proceeding to incorporate that literal piece of Africa into his work. While the inclusion of elephant dung can be viewed as a direct reference to Africa, Ofili’s work more commonly includes references to modern black culture. Ofili has related his use of elephant dung, and mixed media in general, to the “cut and paste” feel of hip-hop music of the 1990s. Additionally, the influence of Blaxploitation movies on his art can be seen in his Captain Shit series. More recently, while living in Trinidad, Ofili has produced works, such as The Healer, inspired by the nature of the island surrounding him. Just as Trinidad now influences his work, London influenced Ofili while he was living there; Ofili’s art draws on the environment, the culture, and the events he is surrounded by as an artist of African descent living in Britain and Trinidad.
In the above video, Andrew Graham-Dixon interviews Chris Ofili prior the opening of Ofili’s mid-life retrospective show at the Tate in 2010. The interview provides a brief synopsis of Ofili’s career, describing his rise to fame in the late 1990s as part of the second wave of YBA’s and emphasizes major developments in his work. Throughout the interview, Ofili makes repeated reference to the effect of location on his artistic production, a topic of interest when studying artists of African descent working abroad. In reference to his earlier paintings, Ofili describes how his use of elephant dung was inspired by a trip to Zimbabwe in 1992 as well as the events he saw unfold around him while living in Kings Cross in London, an area that he describes was used as a “public toilet.” Additionally, Ofili describes his move to Trinidad in 2005 as a “good excuse” to change the way he paints. Following his move to Trinidad, his paintings differ drastically from his earlier works. Ofili attributes this change partially to a pre-existing desire to work in a different way and partially to the influence of Trinidad, notably of the waking hours without daylight he experiences living there.
