Alchemy, travel and the essay – Ellie Ga in Frieze

Ellie Ga makes visual essays. They interlace myth, history and journeys, personal and profound. As she explores ideas she’ll travel to the literal ends of the earth, get lodged in ice in the Arctic for months, learn to dive to try to find the world’s first lighthouse. The work ends up being profound meditations on time, place, work, language all held together by her hypnotic voice ... I write about her for the October issue of Frieze:

“The essay is having a moment. Not just in writing but in art too, and a writer could be jealous of how artists have taken to the form. Ellie Ga’s essays – which manifest as performances and installations – guide you on expeditions to the Arctic or through Egypt searching for the first lighthouse. She delves into memory, myth, language and history, in the Montaignian sense of essayer – to try, to explore.”

Sayed, 2013, video still