Ellen Gallagher: Murmur

A unique and ingeniously designed publication, MURMUR consists of five individually bound and handmade volumes (Blizzard of White, Superboo, Monster, Orbus, and Watery Ecstatic), held together by hidden magnets. Four volumes present film stills created in collaboration with Dutch artist Edgar Cleijne. They combine Gallagher’s oceanic imagery with reworked and scratched footage from vintage science-fiction films. Orbus is a collection of Gallagher’s watercolor, ink, and plasticine collages on paper. She gives new meaning to signs and images from advertising and mass media by modifying them with plasticine, oil, paint, ink, toy eyeballs, and crystals. Ellen Gallagher is famous for her serene and imagi-native approach to African American identity. Her fluid images of strange sea creatures take us to Drexciya, a utopian underwater world inhabited by women and children who escaped from slave ships on the horrifying journey from Africa to America. 

Published in collaboration The Fruitmarket Gallery With an essay by Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith 

Limited Edition of 1500 copies, 700 for distribution in the trade