Holy Virgin Mary, Chris Ofili, 1996

What draws me to Chris's work is his use of religious and African stereotypes. He is most known for the incorporation of elephant dung in many of his early works. In this particular piece he depicts the Virgin Mary as an african woman, but the way an african woman would look when broken down by stereotype. She has big lips, a large nose, and wide hips. Her breasts are formed from the before mentioned elephant dung. The butterflies that are depicted around her are composed of pornographic imagery. Chris's Virgin Mary, to me, symbolizes what mainstream African American culture has become. We depict our women as sexualized objects, interested only in the hips, lips, and breasts. We sing about it. We rap about it. We have our minds set on obtaining money, cars, and women. We are never satisfied with one so we rinse and repeat. We buy what we are told is hip and we lust for what we are told is sexy. I find Ofili's use of the elephant dung in this piece as the most thought provoking part. It symbolizes what the human body is when it has been sexified. It no longer becomes a temple. It is no longer holy.

Shaun Washington