Blaenau Ffestiniog 11.9.96 1996

Curator: Looking at Chris Ofili's drawing, "Blaenau Ffestiniog 11.9.96," one is immediately struck by the sheer obsessive quality of the mark-making, a dense field of tiny linked diamond shapes. What does it bring to mind for you? Editor: Well, the title suggests a place, a date, but visually, it evokes something primal, almost reptilian—like scales of some massive mythical beast, yet rendered with a surprising delicacy. Curator: The date is intriguing. Blaenau Ffestiniog is a slate mining town in Wales, and the drawing was made in '96. Perhaps the repeated forms echo the patterns found in slate or the repetitive nature of the work there? Editor: Absolutely. And the scale motif is laden with cultural associations. Scales can symbolize protection, concealment, even transformation. It’s almost as if Ofili is peeling back the layers of the landscape itself. Curator: It's as if he’s trying to map not just a place, but also a feeling, a rhythm. Editor: Indeed. The longer I look, the more it feels like an artifact, a relic recovered from a site where nature and labor are inextricably linked. Curator: It leaves one pondering the weight of history, both natural and human. Editor: Precisely, a visual echo whispering tales of time and transformation.