Rockin My Socks!

You know that feeling of accomplishment you get when you just finished something you have been working hard on--that is the feeling I got when I looked at Chris Ofili's artwork. Even though I did not do anything but view and take in his work, the appreciation I had for the work he did corresponded to a feeling of pride & accomplishment that we get when we finish something. It felt as if I participated in finishing his work, just by receiving his work, and thus I felt this feeling of accomplishment.

In addition to that feeling, I also was amazed by Ofili's work, particularly the Afrotranslinear pieces. From afar, the pieces appear to be drawings of women or couples or other geometrical shapes composed of darkened circles or translucent circles. His depiction of the human figure is extremely stylistic--characteristic of Ofili. But when you get up close, those circles are actually afros of smiling faces! It was amazing how tiny the afroed faces could get, without losing their form or shape! It was great to realize what I was looking at when I got closer.

Though I am really intrigued by all of the Afrotranslinear pieces, I was drawn to Afro Reap and Sow. This piece has two hands, released from a clasp, sprinkle seeds to the land below. As you can guess, the seeds were afroed smiley faces as well as the outlines of the hands. I enjoyed this piece more so than the others because it gave me some insight on how Ofili chooses between dark fros and light fros. The way he chooses comes down to lighting and shading. The dark fros represented shaded areas and the albino fros represented lit areas. I loved the use of straight lines, without the faces, that reinforced the ideas of light and shade. I also loved how fluffy the afros appeared. They weren't simply darkened half-moons, they were carefully detailed to appear dense and freshly picked.

If we were still talking about our involuntary positive responses, I had one here at this exhibit. The moment I realized they were all composed of tiny faces with fluffy afros, I just became really happy and appreciative of the work Chris Ofili was doing. I enjoyed his paintings as well, but his drawings blew my mind!