Lorna Simpson and Ellen Gallagher

Lorna Simpson- Five day Forecast

Five day forecast

I wanted to do more research into identity so I have decided to look at his specific work by Lorna Simpson. It consists of five large images of black women who are wearing white shirts; the days are placed above the images. There is then the following word printed below ‘Misdescription’, ‘Misinformation’, ‘Misidentify’, ‘Misdiagnose’, ‘Misfunction’, ‘Mistranscribe’, ‘Misremember’, ‘Misgauge’, ‘Misconstrue’ and ‘Mistranslate’. All of these words have negative meaning and suggest that there is some sort of personal breakdown from within the person.

The work questions race and identity two very controversial subjects, the women in the photograph has her arms crossed tightly across her chest, this suggests some tension and looks defiant against doing something. Simpson also suggests with the use if "mis" at the beginning of every word that she is looking at identity in particular with women and the stereotypes that people have to live with. This sort of work is very typical of Simpson and she often plays on identity with a lot of her work, its something that she is really interested in.

I think that personally that the work is really interesting and the body language of the person is enough for you to realise that it is about identity and this is something that I really want to become obvious in my work. I think I will introduce the use of body language into my work so it is more obvious what my work is about.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/simpson-five-day-forecast-t13335/text-summary

Ellen Gallagher 

a section of DeLux 2004

 Gallagher is an artist that has become very popular in the the last twenty years, as an artist she creates sculpture, photography, painting and drawing. She brings together images from myths, history and present crisis to create her work. Her recent exhibition at the Tate revealed that there was many recurring themes within her work race being one of them. She creates her work as an ongoing response to things that are happening in her life and as a constant documentation that things are changing for the better.

Her work is made up of many different images usually as a collage, these are the particular artworks that i am interested in. All the images when placed together are really interesting, but also the fact that the create a larger image or a complex pattern in the way they are placed is also really interesting. Her one influences are said to be  Agnes Martin because of her use of repetition. Galllagher has exhibited across the world. I personally find that some of her work is quite creepy a lot of the figure have had there eyes cut out this makes them look like they have know soul, this is how Gallagher might have felt at the time in her early work. 

There is a awful lot of work that go into her pieces there can be up to 60 processes in each piece, which suggests that the actual process is quite painful, but also that the art is more about the process than the actual work. This is something in common with mine, I am really focusing on the process before looking at the finished product, to me in my work it is more important collecting the figures that other people have drawn.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/ellen-gallagher-9553