Download: DOBIE // I-Anomaly + artwork preview by Chris Ofili
A look at the artwork by Chris Ofili for the forthcoming DOBIE long player We Will Not Harm You on Big Dada. There’s a free download, I-Anomaly, up for download in exchange for your email address here.
More info on the painting: Ofili and Dobie have been friends for years and the painter found time to make the art between completing his sets for the Royal Opera House‘s production “Metamorphosis: Titian 2012” and finishing work for his recently opened exhibition at the Victoria Miro gallery. The work was painted as Ofili listened to the album and the EPs which preceded it and shipped direct from his studio in Trinidad. The cover image shows three figures, two sitting at a table smoking and playing cards, while the third stands holding drinks. The smoke forms a picture within the picture and this detail will be used for the cover of the single which will accompany the album, “She Moans.” Ofili completes the image by writing Dobie’s name and the album title, though this part of the picture will not appear on finished albums and vinyl.
Chris Ofili won the Turner Prize in 1998 and was the British selection for the Venice Biennale in 2003. His love of music is well-documented, both in his art and his involvement with projects such as CDR and Freeness, with which he aimed to challenge the limiting strictures of the “urban” categorisation on Black music.
Press release:
“UK bass legend” (Mixmag) Dobie will release his first album for Big Dada on February 4th 2013. Thirteen tracks of deep, beautifully worked instrumental music, based in hip hop but touching on everything from techno, house, dubstep, latin,two step, jazz, soul, funk and everything in between, “We Will Not Harm You” is a work of art in its own right. But it also has a work of art on its cover – Turner Prize winner Chris Ofili has painted an original image specifically for the album.
Ofili and Dobie have been friends for years and the painter found time to make the art between completing his sets for the Royal Opera House‘s production “Metamorphosis: Titian 2012” and finishing work for his recently opened exhibition at the Victoria Miro gallery. The cover image shows three figures, two sitting at a table smoking and playing cards, while the third stands holding drinks. The smoke forms a picture within the picture and this detail will be used for thecover of the single which will accompany the album, “She Moans.”Ofili completes the image by writing Dobie’s name and the album title, though this part of the picture will not appear on finished albums and vinyl.
Chris Ofili won the Turner Prize in 1998 and was the British selection for the Venice Biennale in 2003. His love of music is well-documented, both in his art and his involvement with projects such as CDR and Freeness, with which he aimed to challenge the limiting strictures of the “urban” categorisation on Black music.
Dobie is a producer, DJ, photographer and skateboarder who has worked with everyone from Soul II Soul, Tricky and London Posseto Massive Attack and Bjork. As well as his music and the art of Chris Ofili, “We WIll Not Harm You” will showcase many of Dobie’s pictures documenting both the skate scene and the early UK hip hop scene. A true hidden legend of underground British bass music, his new album takes his roots in hop hop and explodes them in countless directions. It seems fitting that these two undoubted heavyweights should have come together to make such a beautiful piece of art.
