Ellen Gallagher: Projections | Art21 "Exclusive"

Episode #054: Artist Ellen Gallagher recounts her childhood obsession with projecting films, paired with documentation of her work "Murmur" (2003-04) installed at Gagosian Gallery in New York.

Repetition and revision are central to Ellen Gallaghers treatment of advertisements appropriated from popular magazines. Initially, Gallagher was drawn to the wig advertisements because of their grid-like structure. Later she realized that it was the accompanying language that attracted her, and she began to bring these narratives into her paintings—making them function through the characters of the advertisements as a kind of chart of lost worlds. Upon closer inspection, googly eyes, reconfigured wigs, tongues, and lips of minstrel caricatures multiply in detail. Although her work has often been interpreted as an examination of race, Gallagher also suggests a more formal reading- from afar the work appears abstract and minimal, and employs grids as both structure and metaphors for experience.

Learn more about Ellen Gallagher: http://www.art21.org/artists/ellen-gallagher

VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera & Sound: Tom Hurwitz, Eddie Marritz, Mark Mandler, and Roger Phenix. Editor: Jenny Chiurco and Mary Ann Toman. Artwork Courtesy: Ellen Gallagher & Edgar Cleijne. Special Thanks: Gagosian Gallery, New York and Two Palms Press, New York.

Recordes els visors dels anys 70? Estava molt ficada en eixe món, tenia visors i un projector

Em deixaven portar altres xiquets a la meua habitació per tal de mostrar-los les projeccions, era molt emocionant

M'agradava molt posar-les en la foscor i contar històries. Les projeccions tenien el seu argument, però jo canviava el seu ordre i en creava d'altres

Quan creava eixes històries, per a mi era un moment de molta tranquilitat

El Baró Roig era de les meues favorites. A més la barre