Detective Training
Laser Drawing
2004 (made)
2004 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Ellen Gallagher is an African-American artist whose work addresses issues of identity and transformation. She is particularly interested in the way black people have envisioned and transformed themselves through hairstyling and popular imagery.
The motifs in Detective Training come from a series of 1970s advertisements taken from American magazines aimed at a black readership. The adverts promote the company Medalo, which made wigs, corsets, rings and guns.
Gallagher collaged several advertisements and traced the results, leaving out the advertising copy so that the image is elliptical and strange, with wigs, guns and corsets floating in undifferentiated space. This drawing was copied by a laser, the drawn lines reproduced by light burning to give a sepia-toned effect. Areas where the artist punctured the paper were cut out by the laser, leaving a pattern of holes that suggest a bullet-scarred surface.
The motifs in Detective Training come from a series of 1970s advertisements taken from American magazines aimed at a black readership. The adverts promote the company Medalo, which made wigs, corsets, rings and guns.
Gallagher collaged several advertisements and traced the results, leaving out the advertising copy so that the image is elliptical and strange, with wigs, guns and corsets floating in undifferentiated space. This drawing was copied by a laser, the drawn lines reproduced by light burning to give a sepia-toned effect. Areas where the artist punctured the paper were cut out by the laser, leaving a pattern of holes that suggest a bullet-scarred surface.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Detective Training (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Laser drawing with laser cutting on Japanese paper |
| Brief description | 'Detective Training', 2004, by Ellen Gallagher. Laser drawing with laser cutting. |
| Physical description | Laser drawing on a sheet of Japanese paper, made by outlining shapes, with a laser, from a template designed by the artist. The template brings together the outlines of images of hair styles, corsets and guns advertisements from magazines, in a collection of miniature, fine line 'drawings'. Scattered overall are tiny holes where the laser has been used to burn right through the paper. The sheet of creamy-white paper is mounted over another, whiter sheet and the whole framed in a deep frame. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Limited edition |
| Copy number | 58/100 |
| Marks and inscriptions | '58/100' (Numbered on back of frame) |
| Credit line | Purchased through the Julie and Robert Breckman Print Fund |
| Production | Attribution note: The work was commissioned by the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh to mark the exhibition of Ellen Gallagher's work there in 2004 |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Ellen Gallagher is an African-American artist whose work addresses issues of identity and transformation. She is particularly interested in the way black people have envisioned and transformed themselves through hairstyling and popular imagery. The motifs in Detective Training come from a series of 1970s advertisements taken from American magazines aimed at a black readership. The adverts promote the company Medalo, which made wigs, corsets, rings and guns. Gallagher collaged several advertisements and traced the results, leaving out the advertising copy so that the image is elliptical and strange, with wigs, guns and corsets floating in undifferentiated space. This drawing was copied by a laser, the drawn lines reproduced by light burning to give a sepia-toned effect. Areas where the artist punctured the paper were cut out by the laser, leaving a pattern of holes that suggest a bullet-scarred surface. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.543-2005 |
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| Record created | September 23, 2005 |
| Record URL |
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