Ellen Gallagher (December 16, 1965 - ) Frieze Magazine Autumn 2013

Ellen Gallagher was born in America. Throughout Gallagher’s work she explores the theme of race and identity using a wide variety of mediums such as the moving image, painting and drawing.

Some of her methods include found imagery in magazines and then manipulating them to express her ideas. Gallagher references to the theme of race whilst making it current to todays marketing.

I find Gallagher’s work very powerful, her use of cut and paste is very effective.

 It is strange to view faces with no eyes this may have been a reaction that Gallagher wanted to shock the audience and make them feel uncomfortable. It appears quite scary in a way as they look like dolls with no thoughts of their own.

 However this draws your focus to the bold yellow wigs perhaps this is why she decided to cut out the eyes. It also makes you focus more on the skin tone.

On the one hand, you feel as though you are looking into emptiness by taking out the eyes there is a loss of character and personality of the person being portrayed. However, the wigs being so different to each other add a whole other level of personality of the character.

I think that the colour scheme is really clever as it takes your attention straight to the focal point of the piece.

Presenting them in a grid form allows the viewer to examine the individual wigs but also so that you can view them together almost appearing as an army. I think that the way Gallagher has spaced her images out is visually interesting as she does have some wigs that overlap each other which is an aspect that I really like as it seems they are interacting with each other.

Ellen Gallagher’s influences include Agnes Martin and writer and artist Gertrude Stein. Gallagher has said that she likes the way Gertrude Stein used text in her art.

Following is an extract from a review of Ellen Gallagher’s exhibition at the Tate by Alastair Smart in the Telegraph.

‘And then there’s her series of Yellow canvases, each one a vast grid containing hundreds of adverts – for wigs, hair straighteners and skin whiteners – lifted from vintage, black-life magazines of the mid-20th century.

Gallagher revisits a benighted time when black cultural identity was so suppressed that a desire to look white was commodified – and she zanily restyles each ad’s model with a hairpiece of yellow Plasticine. Her aim, playfully and retrospectively, is to liberate the models in the process.

One wonders, though, if she’d have made more impact leaving the original ads unaltered, so unsavourily revealing are they in themselves. Unusually, Gallagher seems to be affirming the surface of her work at the expense of what lies beneath.’

I disagree with this review as I felt when I walked around the show that the way that she added her own style of the ridiculous bright yellow wigs brings more of a statement forward than just leaving the ads ‘unaltered’.

Damien Hirst (1965 - ) Exhibition visited Summer 201

Damien Hirst is British and is based in North Devon. He is one of the most well known artists of our century. He is also an art collector. Hirst is one of the leaders of the Young British Artists movement which include artists such as Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume, Fiona Rae, Jenny Saville , Marcus Harvey and Anya Gallaccio.

Hirsts key themes in his exhibition ‘Artist rooms’ at Walsall Art Gallery included life, death, religion and belief. Hirst tries to challenge the viewer with facing them with subjects such as the lamb ‘Away from the flock’ made in 1994. This piece is connected to the theme life and death; the lamb is significant as it is not disturbing there is nothing horrific to look at. However it is shocking because it looks so real as if it was just alive and could walk out of the case. 

 Seeing them preserved in containers as if they are part of a science experiment.

One of the pieces I found most intriguing was ‘Trinity- Pharmacology, Physiology, Pathology’ made in 2000. Seeing the anatomy of our body and how it works was visually exceptional.  It was overwhelming to see all of it in one go as there was so much to view. Here is the piece I saw in the Walsall art gallery. The three cabinets represented the different aspects of study into science such as the use and effects of drugs, dealing with living organisms, as well as the development of diseases.

The title “Trinity” echoes the reference to the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in the Christian Faith.  Also, what was interesting about this piece was how it was presented in three cabinets. This was based on the triptych idea, which is used for altarpieces to help people worship.

1422 St. Juvenal Triptych - Masaccio

In Damien Hirst’s exhibition there was also the theme of beauty with death, the thought of preservation. Everything was presented carefully in museum cases, which made it accessible to look at everything in your own time.

Another piece was called “Forms without life, 1991”. All of Hirst’ work seem to have a sense of order everything has a place.

 In this room the cabinet of shells was surrounded by still life paintings by famous painters. When you see the room the shells stand out as they are yet another preservation. Hirst reminds you in the program that once these held creatures of life.  Seeing them in a museum case being preserved is remarkable to see. The different forms catch your attention.

The presentation also reminded me of collector specimen boxes an example of a Victorian one below.

                                    

In this theme of beauty and death Hirst also shows “Monument to the Living and the dead” which was made in 2006.  A quote from Damien Hirst that I found to be true as it is what I feel about this piece also is he first said he thinks of the butterflies as happy, bright and optimistic. But then “I think oh my God, it’s insects trapped in paint.” When I see the butterflies in the gallery I really enjoy looking at the colours, patterns and shapes. How they are all individual but then you do realize that they are trapped or even you could argue they are being preserved like many of his other pieces.

His preserved pieces remind me of Anya Gallaccio’s  “Preserve beauty”

In the press there has been conflict to decide whether or not what Damien Hirst creates can be classed as artwork.

Julian Spalding has said “Worthless as a work of art. He’s not an artist he shouldn’t be in the tate. He’s not an artist and therefore his work is worthless artistically and therefore it has to be worthless financially because people are only spending money on Damien Hirst because they think it’s a work of art and if it isn’t then they are wasting their money.”

The big question was asked to Nancy Durrant – is it art? “ Yes I think that it is I think that anything that deals with questions of the human condition and makes me respond in away to questions of life and death and all of those important things. I think it’s a work of art. Whether you think it’s a good work of art is an entirely different matter. “

These two arguments are ones that I can both agree with. I can see where they are coming from as if he did not do anything to the objects he is putting into the gallery’s you would argue that he just put it there and did nothing. He did not make the artwork. But then you could argue with that and say but it was his idea/ concept to put it into the gallery no one else would have thought of the idea or be bold enough to do it to get a reaction, which is what he wanted.

Painting in different tones of white. With blue , yellow and red backgrounds. Making as many grey tones as possible. 

Painting

What is art?

• Art is a form of expression. 
• You can make a statement .
• It can be a feeling that one has once experienced.
• It can be conceptual 
• Art is different to everyone and means something to each individual person. 
• Demands a response. 
• Challenges peoples mind- Conceptual art.