“No woman, No Cry”, by Chris Ofili, courtesy Victoria Miro, London
Chris Ofili took Bob Marley’s title song “No Woman, No Cry” for his painting that depicts a crying woman. In the spirit of Marley’s song, this painting wants to entreat women not to be sad. Chris Ofili (born in 1968) is a British Turner Prize-winning painter, who now lives and works in Port of Spain, the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago.
The figure of this painting is a woman closes her eyes and cries. The beholders will be amazed when they realize the details. The hair, face, and skin profile of the woman is painted in many small dark brown circles. The pendant of her necklace is made of elephant’s lump dung. The blue tears downs from her eyes and in every drop there is a photograph of a boy’s face. The yellow background of this painting makes it looks warm. The crisscrossed in the background were painted from dotted lines, with black heart shape in every center of the diamonds.
Chris Ofili was inspired by Doreen Lawrence–the mother of Stephen Lawrence; he was murdered when he was a teenager because of a racist attack in London in 1993. The photograph in the woman’s tears is his son’s photo. In 1999, the report of this murder stated that police conduct in this case had been indicated as institutional racism.
Ofili’s painting reminds people of the institutional racism, as nowadays we still encounter. Like the mural of Black Lives Matter, this painting builds social memory on racism issues. It urges society and the government to give greater attention to humanity’s values.
The story of ‘No Woman, No Cry’ (Tate Gallery)
