Collection Study

Ellen Gallagher, Untitled, 2005

November 2023

Imani Mason Jordan’s 1:1 is written in response to Ellen Gallagher’s Untitled (2005). Gallagher’s intimate work shows two silhouetted figures etched onto a gold leaf background. The figures, posed as if in conversation, recall nineteenth-century portraits of authors found in narratives of slave emancipation. Jordan’s couplets of words and sounds, pulsing and intimate, fragmentary and accumulative, reflects Gallagher’s own process of gathering, erasing, cutting and collaging materials.

Roberts Institute of Art — Ellen Gallagher, *Untitled*, 2005
Etching on gold leaf

The opportunity to spend time with Ellen's work and delve into her abstract, experimental practice has transformed my writing in subtle, ongoing ways; I am deeply grateful. — Imani Mason Jordan

Close Looking

Collection Study: Ellen Gallagher by Imani Mason Jordan

15:52

Text by Imani Mason Jordan

1:1

inlaid, embedded, back, seek, repeat no
marked, token throw mingle rut ruin no

no answers, two figures 1:1, tête-à-tête-à-tête
inlaid, embedded, back, seek, repeat no

recompense, reciprocation, to alter, to alter
at the altar the action the process the barter

remember, call to mind, mindful, recompense
reciprocation, remembrance, 1:1 language

cosmology signs, start off, together cosy
parley parley, stack stack stack, hey hey

across, to change, barter barter, haystack
reciprocation, to alter, to alter at the altar

hey hey, palimpsest, undoing, reforming
often over long bodies across linked time

recalibrate, tender tender, i’m bad, bad
arcane convergence, tête-à-tête, reciprocation

at the altar the action the failure, non-occurrence
call to mind, mindful, recompense, reciprocation,

remembrance, across to change, stacking, parley
to alter, to alter, cessation of supply, gold leaf etching

fault, failing, irregularity, misdemeanour, parley parley
1:1 language, heads together cosy, the process

the barter remember, gold altar, cessation, etching
language cosmology sign repetition, deceive

catch cheat cahoot ensnare, weeping, wailing
lamenting chop revisit heads together cosy chat

haystack, revisit heads together cosy, hey
transmute, across, to change, barter barter

recompense, reciprocation, to alter, to alter
at the altar the action the process the barter

start off stacking, parley, 1:1 language cosmology
i chop, he chops, building structure, we chop

jitter shaking loose loosing syncretic form, arresting
bearing geographic timelines bearing evolving

fugitivity mutate, fisher man, bare repeating
freud stein gallagher & me

jitter shaking loose loosing syncretic form, arresting
bearing geographic timelines bearing evolving

varnish and cut and varnish and cut
paper on paper on paper on paper

language cosmology sign repetition
listening start off start off start off stacking

chop revisit heads together cosy chat, parley
1:1 language cosmology start off start off

start off stacking, parley, 1:1 language cosmology
i chop, he chops, structure, building we chop

heads together cosy chat, 1:1 language, parley
stack, chop, stack, chop, 1:1, hey hey, cosy

haystack, revisit heads together cosy, hey
transmute, across, to change, barter barter

recompense, reciprocation, to alter, to alter
at the altar the action the process the barter

remember, call to mind, mindful, recompense
reciprocation, remembrance, 1:1 language

cosmology signs, start off, together cosy
parley parley, stack stack stack, hey hey

across, to change, barter barter, haystack
reciprocation, to alter, to alter at the altar

the action the process the barter, hey hey
1:1 language cosmology start off start off

at the altar the action the failure, non-occurrence
call to mind, mindful, recompense, reciprocation,

remembrance, across to change, stacking, parley
to alter, to alter, cessation of supply, gold leaf etching

fault, failing, irregularity, misdemeanour, parley parley
1:1 language, heads together cosy, the process

the barter remember, gold altar, cessation, etching
language cosmology sign repetition, deceive

catch cheat cahoot ensnare, weeping, wailing
lamenting chop revisit heads together cosy chat

haystack, revisit heads together cosy, hey
transmute, across, to change, barter barter

recompense, reciprocation, to alter, to alter
at the altar the action the process the barter

start off stacking, parley, 1:1 language cosmology
i chop, he chops, we structure, building

catch cheat cahoot ensnare, weeping, wailing
lamenting chop revisit heads together cosy chat

haystack, revisit heads together cosy, hey
transmute, across, to change, barter barter

recompense, reciprocation, to alter, to alter
at the altar the action the process the barter

language cosmology sign repetition
listening start off start off start off stacking

chop revisit heads together cosy chat, parley
1:1 language cosmology start off start off

varnish and cut and varnish and cut
paper on paper on paper on paper

heads together cosy chat, 1:1 language, parley
stack, chop, stack, chop, 1:1, hey hey, cosy

accretion, erasure, extraction, recalibrating
tension, saturating, overlapping tête-à-tête