New and Contemporary Media

Ellen Gallagher born in 1965 in Providence, Rhode Island, works and lives in Rotterdam, Holland and New York. Her main concerns are revision and repetitious treatment of advertisements that she appropriates from popular magazines such as Our World, Ebony and Sepia. She attended Oberlin College and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and was initially drawn to wig advertisements. She then realized that it was the language that intrigued her and not the grid like structure and began to use these narratives in her own work. Their function was to achieve a chart of lost worlds through manipulation of the characters of the advertisements. The work appears abstract from afar but upon closer inspection detail is multiplied through caricatures; reconfigured wigs, tongues, googly eyes and lips. Gallagher's work influenced by Agnes Martin's paintings and Gertrude Stein's writing were often referred to as an examination of race by critics. Early works show that Gallagher glued pages of penmanship paper onto stretched canvas and then painted and drew on it. She carved images into thick watercolor paper in her own interpretation of scrimshaw as shown in "Watery Ecstatic" (2002-04). Emerging from this was the sea creatures from Dreciya, an underwater Black Atlantis.

Images from the Series "Watery Ecstatic"

Here is a video of Ellen Gallagher explaining her work (Art 21)

This type of work in my opinion is functional, in that it does its part and is executed in such a way that the point of the message is heard. A person after seeing an interesting visual of an advertisement would most likely remember it, especially if it is funny or intriguing. It is however said that Gallagher uses racism in her work. According to Jan Avgikos in the Artforum, Summer 2002 "Blubber lips, hot-dog lips, Sambo lips. They used to call them "nigger lips" in the South (and probably still do)--just writing the words brings back the pain of racism that's pervasive and in your face. Now, ironically, white people have their lips injected full of collagen to get that big-lip look; think of Angelina Jolie's "pillow lips." There's a whole lot of bite in the difference between "nigger lips" and "pillow lips," one an epithet of derision, the other of desirability. The defacing racial stereotypes of the Jim Crow South don't stop, of course, with cartoon renderings of bulbous lips, protruding eyes, and wild hair, but extend to tales of mythically proportioned genitalia and sexual appetite to match. ..... The freak show Gallagher creates is both wickedly hilarious and terribly poignant. There's no escaping the horror, the stigma, the self-loathing associated with being black and female, whether we regard the ads themselves as prima facie evidence or apprehend the idea of abjection through Gallagher's "erasures.""

Im not sure that Gallagher's intention was to be racist in any way. Her goal was to be funny and to create something that will be remembered.

Mr Terrific (2004-2005) E. Gallagher

This piece called "Mr. Terrific" from "Deluxe" was done between 2004 and 2005 and is of dimension 13 x 10 inches. The materials and methods used are aquatint, photogravure, and plasticine. Photogravure according to traditionalart.com is 'the image is transferred to the printing plate by means of light sensitive, acid-resisting chemical ground. The photogravure can reproduce an original painting or photograph with an accuracy of detail and tonal depth unlikely to be surpassed in monochrome printing. ...' Aquatint is an etching made by a process that makes it look like a water color.

There is something that seems a little frivolous about this piece that brings out the child in a person. Although the ad is to be taken serious, one can just not help smile at the playfulness. Gallagher seems to think to herself that although she does not use much paint in the piece she thinks of it as a built painting. The layering and relief adds to the 'building' of the painting. It is aesthetically pleasing but it serves a purpose.