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ments, the discs liewhere theyfall at the base. On this facet, only one spectreofland inhabited by ravaged figures remains. From another viewpoint the effects oferosion are little more than surface deep. Like a cartographer, he maps contour lines, rivers, and anonymous cities. Indigenous societies (in environments where the ecological balance has not been destroyed) which still bear an individuality, a cultural identity, are represented by characteristic symbols; Adinkra patterns and Nsibidi. Where human figures are carved on the surface, they represent migration or displacement from an environment affected by pollution. Such displacement is happening among the Ogoni in south eastern Nigeria where oil industry pollution has blasted their land and rivers. The history of Africa is Anatsui's twin theme and his wall plaques include representations of past migrations, some forced, some voluntary. There are however many gaps in historical knowledge and in Patches of History the gap is presented as a blackened void. Contemporary migrations within the continent are still occurring. Some Africans laboring in countries under pressures of national debt, foreign multinational companies , and internal political mismanagement, seek refuge and genuine travel outside the continent These people are represented in VtSa Queue as indistinguishable aliens. The scale and similarity of the figures and the technique of burning the edges produces an image that looks blurred and hazy. While another wall plaque representing a large number ofpeople is entitled One Out of the Crowd, in VtSa Queue no one stands out The people in line are seen to be out of focus, indistinct, and lacking individuality . Underlying this work is a pessimism , the figures having no environmental context and displaying no cluesabout their identity or history. Yet this is the reality of displaced persons, political refugees, and others who are travelling to inhospitality. Perhaps this is why one cannot tell which is the head or which is the tail of the line. Apparently, there is no more promise for those who reach the front ofthe queue than for those at the end - Liz WiUis CHRIS OFIU GAVIN BROWN ENTERPRISE NEW YORK Almost seven years ago, while on a lecture trip in Manchester, England, I came upon the extraordinary work of a talented young artist in a student award exhibit, and, utterly captivated by the artist's boldness and meticulous command of his support and material, acquired most unbelievably in only two years of practice, wrote about my experience in the press. At the time and with the evidence in his award-winning work, the absence of inhibition both thematic and formalistic, and a certain, indefinable yet prominent inclination towards self-replication and sacrifice , at once very British yet disquietingly loud, I had little doubt that the young artist was set for greater work and a successful career. The artist in question was British painter Chris Ofili, recently represented in the traveling exhibit of contemporary British art, "Brilliant!", and in a one-person show at the Gavin Brown Enterprise in New York. Yet, in the years that followed , Ofili's success and growing fame have rested not on the promise originally evident in his work, the boldness and clarity, the almost masterful painterliness, the feel for the medium, the swashbuckling insistence that registered not hesitancy but confidence. Instead, Ofili's has moved progressively in the direction of uncertainty, lack of clarity, and a breakdown in confidence, leading to an elaborate strategy of publicity-seeking gimmicks and peregrinations, including a series of David Hammons impersonations from setting up stall to hawk elephant droppings to passers-by in imitation of Hammons' 1983 snowball performance by the Cooper Union Art School, to using droppings as props a la Hammons's 1978 Elephant Dung with Wheels. More recently Ofili has wedged his practice between severely unaccomplished references to Aboriginal dot-painting and an indefinable, pseudo-pop engagement with the banalities ofmedia culture and false artisanship. And though these tactics have paid off, bringing Ofili attention and relative critical acclaim, the greatest danger to his practice, incidentally , lies not in his hopefully temporary loss of direction, but in the insidiousness of the acclaim that has attended his most recent production. Not only have the champions of this young artist failed to point to his progressive...

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