Ellis Gallagher's street art, or Not quite graffiti

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

American Ellis Gallagher paints rather unusual graffiti. The essence of his work boils down to the fact that, in the light of lanterns, he outlines with chalk the shadows of various objects that he meets on the streets of the city. On the one hand, it is very simple, and it can be called graffiti at a stretch. But on the other hand, no one else does this. And most importantly - no problems with the law.

Strange as it may seem, the arrest pushed Ellis to the idea of doing this kind of art. At the beginning of his creative career, the author created ordinary graffiti, selflessly painting walls on the streets of New York. The American police did not approve of this, and after the arrest, Gallagher was sent to do community work. This was in 1999, and two years later, the author said goodbye to graffiti forever. Still, the passion for drawing on the streets turned out to be stronger, and in 2005, instead of a spray can of paint, Ellis picked up chalk.

Ellis Gallagher outlines the shadows of the most ordinary objects: fire boxes, fences, lampposts … In the daytime, shadows disappear, and only schematically drawn lines remain. Such drawings live no more than a month, and most often disappear even earlier under rain streams, so the artist must take pictures of each of his works to preserve the memory of it.

Ellis Gallagher's drawings are a kind of criticism of US law, where graffiti is considered illegal. After all, according to the definition, graffiti is "engraving, drawing or otherwise making marks on objects of private or public property, causing damage to them (objects)." Drawings left by chalk on the sidewalk disappear without a trace after a couple of weeks, and there is no talk of any damage. So, from the point of view of the law of Gallagher's work - and not graffiti at all.

Ellis Gallagher was born in 1973 and works primarily in New York. His works have repeatedly appeared not only on the streets of the city, but in various periodicals, including The New York Times, New York Magazine, Artnet Magazine, Der Spiegel Germany, The Area Revue France, H Magazine Spain and others.