2004

Wish-Whish-Whisk

American, born 1965

Ellen Gallagher's work confronts issues of racial identity by transforming racist imagery, through multiplication and disjunction, into elegant abstract elements. She is best known for two major groups of works, known as the Ebony series, with grid arrangements of "wig ladies" based upon advertisements from black culture magazines, and the Watery Ecstatic series of images of sea life, specifically the eel-a mysterious bottom-feeding fish that lives in dark, muddy waters. Wish-Whish-Whisk is a six-part mixed-media piece juxtaposing elements from the two series. According to Gallagher, it is "the idea of disembodiment or invasion from the inside out, this kind of captivity" that links them.