‘Requiem’, Chris Ofili, at Tate Britain
It is first the white smoked glass doors that attracted my attention. While going around in Tate Britain on a late evening, the music was playing, a soft drumming background surrounded by an excited and joyous crowd. There I turn my head to the left to see these doors, like guarding a secret. Messages of possible distressing images are written on the door. I just push it.
Requiem, Chris Ofili, 2023 (left side)
“I wanted to make a work in tribute to Khadija Saye. Remembering the Grenfell Tower fire, I hope that the mural will continue to speak across time to our collective sadness.”
Requiem is a monumental artwork by Chris Ofili exhibited at Tate Britain, in the North staircase. Standing like a painted cathedral, the like of the chapel sistine (minus the painted roof), the oeuvre pays homage to the tragedy of Grenfell tower in June 2017, and the loss of artists Khadija Saye who lived in the building. The work in itself presents typical characters the artists depicts in his practice, mixing figurative, abstract with a touch of magic realism.
The work can be read as a triptych, first presenting a bowing figure on the left, a recurrent figure in his recent works, holding Grenfell tower on fire on a green tray. He stands as a witness of the disaster, and conducts a ceremony of loss. The scene is very emotional as tears fall down the eyes of the man, forming an ocean that links the other part of the work together. Ofili has described it as a tender and dutiful act. All around the tower, you can perceive spirits and souls escaping from it.
The second part of the work is painted like a stained glass rose window you'd find in churches just above the entrance. This part pays tribute to the artist Khadija Saye; an artist he befriended in Venice during the Biennale. On a record on Tate’s website, Ofili relates his momentary encounter with the artist at the Venice Biennale in 2017, when in that same year she tragically passed away in the Grenfell fire.. The image itself is inspired by one of her photographs portraying herself (now exhibited at Tate Modern in A World in Common) holding an andichurai which is a vessel, a Gambian incense pot supposed to drive away evil spirits. This picture and the series she created for the exhibition at Tate Modern is also a representation of her dual faith: Christian and Muslim. The flow of tears now transformed into an agitated stream pass under the image of Saye. There above, the spirits and souls present in the first part of the painting converge around this source of radiance Saye is emitting - a blue and purple circle surrounding her figure depicted in an orange/yellow background, resembling of fire or lava.
The third part taps into the magic realism side of Ofili's practice. Lying under a purple tree, a faun is calling the souls into a place of peace with its flute. The river reaches the shores of an eerie landscape while the souls travelling around the work all meet around the tree into this scene, attracted by the sound of the flute. They all seems to be forming the leaves of the tree, a Ceanothus which is a reference to the tree in the garden dedicated to Khadija Saye's memory in East London.
“Public art can hold space of grief’”
This very strong artwork holds a place of commemoration and reflection on loss, spirituality, and transformation - the 3 main themes present in the 3 parts of the work respectively. Ofili created a place of gathering, to keep alive collective memory of event, and honour his encounter with Saye. Having been touched by the artist, Ofili wanted to picture the energy he remembers of her.
The commission will be in the space for a decade and in that way, will be able to speak across time, and preserve the memory of a disastrous and historical moment in British history.
Location:
Tate Britain, North Staircase
Millbank, London SW1P 4RG