How old is Chris Ofili?

53 years (October 10, 1968)Chris Ofili / Age

Why does Chris Ofili use elephant dung?

YES, IT’S ELEPHANT POO Ofili simply wanted to bring a ubiquitous part of the African landscape back to England with him, to incorporate into his artwork. (Later, he used dung from the elephant pen at a London zoo.)

Why did Ofili paint the Holy Virgin Mary?

The Holy Virgin Mary The painting is Ofili’s attempt to deal with his childhood questions about race and virgin mothers, in particular which women are permitted to be holy, to be pure, and to be considered ‘good mothers’.

What controversial materials did Chris Ofili include in his piece The Holy Virgin Mary 1996 )?

Ofili’s oeuvre portrays Mary wearing a blue cape parted to reveal a breast made of dried and varnished elephant dung. Similar to Old Master paintings, Mary is surrounded by angels—only here they are drawn in the shape of genitalia. And the 8-foot-high canvas is propped on two lumps of dried dung.

What material does Chris Ofili use?

Ofili has utilized resin, beads, oil paint, glitter, lumps of elephant dung, cut-outs from porn magazines as painting elements. His work has been classified as “punk art.”

Where is Chris Ofili from?

Manchester, United KingdomChris Ofili / Place of birth

Where did Chris Ofili go to school?

Royal College of Art
Tameside CollegeXaverian CollegeChelsea College of Art & Design
Chris Ofili/Education

What does elephant dung symbolize?

Elephants in Africa represent power. Dung is meant to suggest fertility. African art has always incorporated dung without meaning to be offensive — there is an African mask in the Brooklyn Museum made of wood, honey, metal and dung.

Why was elephant dung used in the Holy Virgin Mary?

He positioned the painting atop two patties of elephant dung, a substance believed to have medicinal properties, while a third patty stands in for the Virgin’s exposed breast. Ofili crafted the cherubs flying around her from images of women’s buttocks that he clipped from pornographic magazines.

Why is Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary so controversial offensive?

probably most controversial of all, he made his own representation of the Virgin, defiant of tradition.”[2] The “parody-like African mouth” and exaggerated facial features call attention to racial stereotypes, as well as to the assumed whiteness of biblical figures in Western representations.