0:00:07.440,0:00:12.220 [Ellen Gallagher: Cutting] 0:00:15.140,0:00:16.700 I grew up in New England 0:00:16.700,0:00:19.680 and I live now between Rotterdam and New York. 0:00:22.130,0:00:26.500 I'm actually a big bird watcher in Rotterdam[br]now 0:00:26.500,0:00:29.320 because it's a great migratory space 0:00:29.320,0:00:30.910 and I'm there with my binoculars, 0:00:30.910,0:00:33.090 and hiking around there. 0:00:33.090,0:00:34.730 And I'm looking very precisely 0:00:34.730,0:00:38.550 at these fleeting glimpses of birds. 0:00:40.559,0:00:42.550 You try to remember what you've seen, 0:00:42.550,0:00:46.270 it's gone, and then you try to find it again. 0:00:50.820,0:00:52.820 In the bird paintings, 0:00:52.829,0:00:56.850 I start with a more precise drawing, 0:00:56.850,0:00:58.129 and then from that drawing, 0:00:58.129,0:01:00.339 I abstract the form. 0:01:00.339,0:01:01.449 And it has to be abstract. 0:01:01.449,0:01:03.600 It wouldn't work if it was really like 0:01:03.600,0:01:06.280 a completely believable, detailed, 0:01:06.280,0:01:08.580 precise rendering of the bird. 0:01:10.980,0:01:13.880 I like radically cutting into the painting, 0:01:13.880,0:01:17.050 inserting these paper birds, 0:01:17.050,0:01:19.670 and then trying to figure out how to believe[br]in it. 0:01:19.670,0:01:21.550 I'd have to somehow, then, 0:01:21.550,0:01:24.310 weave them back into the paintings. 0:01:28.090,0:01:29.950 The things that separates the planes 0:01:29.950,0:01:34.570 are the incisions and the edges of the matter. 0:01:35.750,0:01:39.130 Each separate layer of cutting or painting 0:01:39.130,0:01:40.420 is visible 0:01:40.420,0:01:43.180 and readable as an edge. 0:01:51.800,0:01:54.020 It is interesting to see 0:01:54.030,0:01:57.000 the way content surfaces over time, 0:01:57.000,0:02:00.520 both in my mind and in the skin of the work. 0:02:00.520,0:02:04.520 ["Watery Ecstatic Series" (2001--2009)] 0:02:04.800,0:02:08.119 The "Watery Ecstatic" works were more kind[br]of 0:02:08.119,0:02:11.519 narrative--literary--relationship to the sea. 0:02:12.840,0:02:15.129 The cut drawings were about 0:02:15.129,0:02:18.140 bringing that biological surface 0:02:18.140,0:02:21.240 into the form of the drawing. 0:02:25.480,0:02:28.290 I used to get these air bubbles that annoyed[br]me. 0:02:28.290,0:02:30.310 The slice I made when the paper was wet, 0:02:30.310,0:02:31.790 just to release air bubbles, 0:02:31.790,0:02:36.240 opened up and became this sort of 0:02:36.240,0:02:39.090 cut that was fleshy. 0:02:39.090,0:02:39.930 And it's funny, then, 0:02:39.930,0:02:41.980 as you move into the "Watery Ecstatic" works 0:02:41.980,0:02:44.959 to see that cut become so conscious. 0:02:46.400,0:02:49.080 For me, I found that to be a surprise. 0:02:50.660,0:02:53.420 Cutting a graphic edge from the earlier works 0:02:53.430,0:02:54.560 into the newer works 0:02:54.560,0:02:57.080 has been, I think, consistent.