Ellen Gallagher
dal 20/4/2007 al 27/8/2007
Segnalato da
20/4/2007
Ellen Gallagher
Tate Liverpool, Liverpool
In her recent work, including paintings, a series of drawings collectively titled Watery Ecstatic, and a number of 16mm films, she has explored the myth of a 'Black Atlantis' - known as Drexciya - populated by those who jumped from slave ships during the gruelling route from Africa to America. She has also explored the history of the islands of Cape Verde and their volcanic landscape that was for centuries the scene of trade in salt and slaves.
Tate08 Series
The Tate08 Series goes from strength to strength in 2007 with an
exhibition of work by Ellen Gallagher. Born in 1965, Ellen Gallagher is
best known as a leading contemporary painter, although she has also
created drawings, prints, sculptures and, in collaboration with Edgar
Cleijne, a number of 16mm films. Touching particularly on issues of race
and identity politics, Gallagher's work explores the language of
Modernist painting (particularly the monochrome and the grid) and brings
a symbolic or narrative content to these forms.
In her recent work, including paintings, a series of drawings
collectively titled Watery Ecstatic, and a number of 16mm films, she has
explored the myth of a 'Black Atlantis' - known as Drexciya - populated
by those who jumped from slave ships during the gruelling route from
Africa to America. She has also explored the history of the islands of
Cape Verde and their volcanic landscape that was for centuries the scene
of trade in salt and slaves. Gallagher's works refer to the gathering of
salt, the 'white gold' upon which the Cape Verde communities were built.
These works include the major new painting Bird in Hand 2006, a
composition dominated by the figure of a black sailor or pirate. Cape
Verde slaves, who gathered salt, also gained knowledge of sea-faring to
the extent that some became sailors and captains. Such specific
references merge with Gallagher's own biography as a black Irish
American woman - her father was from Cape Verde and her Irish mother
from Rhode Island. Her work has also embraced themes drawn from natural
history, fantasy and science fiction. All of Gallagher's work is
characterised by a density of imagery and complex, built-up surface
detail.
Gallagher is well-known for reworking advertisements featuring Afro
hairstyles, wigs and skin products from black magazines such as Ebony
and Sepia, to explore the impact of consumerism on black identity. She
says 'I take archival material from the 1930s through the 1970s and
reactivate it through a series of transformations using photogravure,
dry point, plasticine, coconut oil, paint, ink, toy eyeballs, gold leaf.
These fugitive characters reoccur throughout the grid both as themselves
and as other worldly presences. Each repetition is an initiation of that
character into an altered state.' In other works she employs an
apparently abstract imagery, which is derived from the stereotyped eyes
and mouths found in caricatures of the black body.
The exhibition at Tate Liverpool will include Bird in Hand 2006, the
series of Water Ecstatic drawings and new works that explore related
themes. A programme of public and educational events will complement
this exhibition. For more details visit www.tate.org.uk/liverpool. This
exhibition will tie in with a number of events organised around the
celebration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in
Britain in 2007.
The Tate08 Series is made possible by the generous support of the Tate08
partners: DLA Piper, Manchester Airports Group, Liverpool John Moores
University and recently-joined members Cains Brewery. Tate08 Partners is
Tate Liverpool's new sector-exclusive 'super club' wherein partners
directly support the gallery's key ambitions during the years leading up
to, and including, 2008.
Tate Liverpool
Albert Dock - Liverpool