Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

Matthew G. Alexander, author of "Prejudice in Brooklyn Art" [YH, 10/22/99] obviously has not seen the painting entitled "Holy Virgin Mary." He describes it as "the Madonna splattered with elephant feces." In reality, the painting depicts a pregnant African woman, with one of her breasts, made out of elephant dung, uncovered. The whole painting rests on two clumps of elephant dung; one is decorated with the word "Virgin," the other with the word "Mary." Small pictures clipped from porn magazines surround the Virgin Mary, isolating her holiness in a world where pornography seems to rule.

The painter, Chris Ofili, is of Nigerian origin. Although the frequent use of elephant dung in his work might shock some people, its meaning comes out of his African background. Elephant dung fertilizes the soil of Africa, just as the uncovered breast will feed the unborn child protected by the Virgin Mary's womb.

This explanation of his use of elephant dung and pornographic pictures is given on the free audio tour accompanying the Sensation exhibition and narrated by David Bowie; another reason to believe Matthew G. Alexander has not visited the exhibition.

A Catholic myself, I was curious to see this particular painting of the Virgin Mary. It made me realize that the real threat to any kind of religion, art, sexual nature, race, or science, is being uninformed and prejudiced.

—Bjorn Tuypens, GRD '04

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