Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Chris Ofili
After reading about Chris Ofili I started to think about rap music and how he said that he portrayed his version of the Virgin Mary as a black woman in a rap song. It was interesting to me to think about how negatively these women are portrayed. It was also interesting to me to think about how he could use such an important figure in catholicism and turn it into something almost derogatory. I understood the meaning he was trying to convey by using something so shocking to get his point across. While reading about Chris Ofili, I thought his work was about making a statement but at the end of the reading, he says his work is about critique, religion and confusion of situations. Then I thought isn't being confused good sometimes if you question the confusion and want to learn more about something. There is not always one way to look at something and not everything is so black and white as wrong or right. There is always gray.
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3 comments:
I agree with you Michelle. After reading Chris Ofili, I thought a lot of the same things. I thought his work was religion though, I thought that from the first time I saw his idea of the Virgin Mary. For someone to put something religious in their work, there is always a reason for it. People who put religion in their work, know of that religion enough to know why they are doing it, or what it means to them, so I knew he was trying to make a statement. I think by the end of the reading we got just that reaction that he wanted. He wanted us to think about religion and confusion. I was confused with why he would compare her like he said he does in his work. And I see now, that that is what he wanted to have happen. I don't know if his idea or goal was to get people confused enough about Catholicism to question things about the faith, or to question things about his work, or to make us think about our own faith and what we believe or what we think of. When I think abou
t the Virgin Mary, I do not see her the way he does, but there creates the confusion because he does she her differently, and why is that? His lyrics spark exactly what he intends them to, and I thought that this was a good reading because it made me think of reactions, and our projects this week were about reactions. Interesting tie there.
-Catie
I find it interesting that the Holy Virgin Mary in regards to Christianity is an icon in which reality is taken out of it. As Ofili mentioned he wanted "an in-your-face 90s version," and I think it's because Western views of particularly Catholism and Christianity are so watered down and unrealistic. The G-rated virginal, untouched concepts within religion can be so hypocritical when you add social issues to it--particularly black struggle. Ofili pointed out this hypocracy. It's not about confusion to me, but more reality-- making things clearer if anything; making Westerners more aware that there are actually other people in this world that live completely different lives(not virginal, conservative ones either). Of course The Holy Virgin Mary was "blasphemous" to Catholic protestors. They never had to live in a world of struggle where the color of their skin, or their sex was considered blasphemous. They are completely naive. Being quite familiar with Feminism and Paganism, I won't get on my high horse about the concept of the Virgin Mary and issues of race and gender; I'll just say his work was incredible and incredibly accurate.
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