CHRIS OFILI
Afro Lunar Lovers II • 2005
New Limited Edition Print
Giclee, silk screen and embossed
with hand applied gold leaf
Signed and numbered edition of 250
Price £500 (unframed) excl VAT and p&p
Published by Afroco and Victoria Miro Gallery
http://www.victoria-miro.com
“What matters for the journey which this series chronicles, is not arriving at some final Beatific Vision but the more earthly, carnal dreams and visions to be glimpsed along the way”. Professor Stuart Hall, Chris Ofili in Paradise: Dreaming in Afro, Within Reach, 2003.
Afro Lunar Lovers II, 2005 is the second in a series of three prints by Chris Ofili in red, black and green and continues the cyclical love story which began with his exhibition Freedom One Day in London in 2002 and continued with within reach at the 50th Venice Biennale, 2003. The paintings, works on paper and prints with their restricted red-black-green palette, are all part of an ongoing body of work which sees the Afro Lovers emerging in each new “scene” from an episodic and incomplete narrative journey.
Afro Lunar Lovers II is set in the powerful, ancient landscape of Egypt. Standing before the pyramids at night the couple now occupy a different time and are further into their journey through paradise. The snake which was present but not visible in the earlier print now appears as two entwined serpents. Whilst it before could be sensed as a threatening presence they now represent a more benign force of guardianship, binding and holding the couple together as their tangled limbs gradually merge into a single form.
Afro Lunar Lovers II, 2005 will be pre-sold from May 24 and will be available from mid July. Advance reservations can be placed via the web. Please go to http://www.victoria-miro.com/afrolunarloversII/