Poetry. Photography. Art. CLASSIFICATION OF A SPIT STAIN is the result of Ellie Ga's two-year project photographing and analyzing stains on city pavements throughout the world. Accompanying the photographs is a classification system which organizes the stains according to various qualities such as substance and longevity. A combination of urban flaneurie and garbology, CLASSIFICATION OF A SPIT STAIN is a mysterious field guide to the landscape underneath the soles of our shoes. The original version of this artist book, made in an edition of twenty-five copies, is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library, Yale University, Brown University and UCLA's Dickson Library, among others. This trade edition was produced in response to sustained interest.

Author City: Palermo ITA

Ellie Ga's more recent projects explore the limits of photographic documentation. Her work spans a variety of mediums, often incorporating her exploratory writing, and generally culminating in lectures, slide-presentations, handmade books and instructional installations. As an artist-in-residence at the Explorers Club in New York City, Ellie Ga created "The Catalogue of the Lost," a series of installations and lectures that incorporated the Club's archives, as well as "missing" events and photographs from the history of Arctic exploration. During 2007-2008, she was the artist-in-residence on the Tara, a polar schooner locked in the pack-ice of the Arctic Ocean. Her work from these projects were exhibited recently at the Konstmuseum in Malmo, Galerie du Jour in Paris, and Projekt 0047 in Oslo. Ellie Ga has also been an artist-in-residence at the Newark Museum of Art and the Women's Studio Workshop, where she made the first edition of CLASSIFICATION OF A SPIT STAIN. Her performances, videos and installations have been shown in New York (Dispatch, Swiss Institute, 16 Beaver, Rubin Museum of Art, Gigantic Art Space) and Switzerland (Museen fur Gegenwartkunst in Basel, Les Urbaines in Lausanne). Born in New York City, Ellie Ga received her MFA in photography from Hunter College. She is currently living in Palermo, Italy.

Reviews and Other Links
Bryan Stokes II @ Coldfront
Denise Dooley @ Galatea Resurrects
Rachel G. Mohl @ MAKE