Chris Ofili

So on Monday everybody was given an artist to research using the Library resources. My artist is Chris Ofili  a British contemporary artist. While he lives and creates art in England he is also of African descent. From visiting his parents home town in Nigeria he gained inspiration for a new style of art. Seeing the cave paintings  made him incorporate primary colours in dots and swirls. Looking at African medicinal methods he decided to use Elephant and Baboon dung in his works. He developed what some people refer to as an alter ego 'Captain Shit' which featured in many of his pieces 

Rather than use the normal method of hanging paintings Ofili let the pieces rest on lumps of dung. If he was using dung within the artwork it was generally as a glue on to which jewels could be stuck. Occasionally he used locks of his own hair in his artworks.'shit head'

He won the Turner prize in 1988 which was one of the reasons that he and an architect

 David Adjaye were chosen to redesign the British Pavilion. http://www.thisistomorrow.info/default.aspx?webPageId=1 

The colours he used in creating the dome represent his heritage. Red is for the blood of the people that was shed for the Green of the land, and Black is associated with the skin colour of the people.

All in all I enjoyed researching Ofili. His artwork is unique because of his experiences and the materials he uses. I found the project challenging as there was a limited resource of information about Ofili in the Library.