0:00:44.312,0:00:46.366 RICHARD SERRA:[br]For the most part, work comes out of work 0:00:46.366,0:00:48.520 in terms of how I develop an idea. 0:00:48.520,0:00:51.129 I never begin with an image[br]and I never begin with a drawing. 0:00:51.129,0:00:53.190 I usually begin with a model. 0:00:54.695,0:00:57.503 It’s a way of working from the inside out. 0:01:01.390,0:01:04.180 I think I’m probably building upward of[br]12 to 15 pieces 0:01:04.180,0:01:05.920 right now, in various stages— 0:01:05.920,0:01:09.800 I’m building a piece in St. Louis,[br]I’m building a piece in Woodside, California, 0:01:09.800,0:01:12.530 I’m building a piece in Sinagpore,[br]I’m building a piece in Qatar, 0:01:12.530,0:01:14.539 I’m building a piece in New Zealand— 0:01:15.067,0:01:16.868 I’m building quite a lot of work right now. 0:01:26.450,0:01:27.869 I never think in terms of metaphor, 0:01:27.869,0:01:31.679 nor do I think in terms of what the image[br]is going to look like beforehand, 0:01:32.380,0:01:35.369 What concerns me is[br]the relationship of the elements 0:01:35.369,0:01:39.360 that I happen to find interesting at that[br]point. 0:01:39.360,0:01:43.050 And if I think I can invent a new way of looking[br]at those elements, 0:01:43.050,0:01:45.170 or make the possibility of walking in and[br]through 0:01:45.170,0:01:49.000 and around a piece something that startles me, 0:01:49.000,0:01:52.040 then I think that there’s a possibility[br]to proceed. 0:01:54.680,0:01:56.100 With “Charlie Brown” in particular, 0:01:56.100,0:02:00.000 the problem was how to [br]bend a shape as it elevated 0:02:00.509,0:02:02.526 that leaned away from you and turned…. 0:02:05.640,0:02:09.167 and that came out of having worked with[br]the “Ellipses” prior. 0:02:26.970,0:02:31.790 I was surprised in that people who had absolutely[br]no information about sculpture were able 0:02:31.790,0:02:37.920 to enter into these pieces[br]and find a certain amount of engagement 0:02:37.920,0:02:42.034 with the sculpture in ways that they[br]probably hadn’t before. 0:02:42.760,0:02:45.910 The experience for a lot of them was fulfilling[br]because, in some sense, 0:02:45.910,0:02:49.530 it was startling, because it was new,[br]because they couldn’t locate themselves. 0:02:53.793,0:02:55.989 It had nothing to do with architecture,[br]it had nothing to do with landscape, 0:02:55.989,0:02:59.599 it had nothing to do with buildings[br]or mountains or ravines, 0:02:59.599,0:03:02.572 or anything that they could have a touchstone to. 0:03:35.420,0:03:39.420 This piece has a continuous movement[br]even if you remain stationary, 0:03:39.420,0:03:41.019 so this piece has a very big stretch, 0:03:41.019,0:03:43.150 and this piece makes you concentrate more 0:03:43.150,0:03:49.146 on the elasticity of the steel itself[br]than the physicality of the space. 0:03:52.030,0:03:55.000 The steel in this piece becomes something[br]other than steel. 0:03:55.000,0:03:58.571 It almost has a feeling[br]that it’s being stretched like rubber. 0:04:00.819,0:04:03.377 It becomes a band, not a plane. 0:04:11.902,0:04:15.665 One of the things I also find gratifying [br]about this piece 0:04:16.346,0:04:20.239 is that the overhang on the piece[br]is upward of five or six feet, 0:04:20.837,0:04:23.959 so you’re able to walk under the piece… 0:04:27.610,0:04:30.110 where the overhand is almost like the hull[br]of a ship. 0:04:31.782,0:04:35.380 Probably one of the most[br]primal experiences I had, 0:04:35.380,0:04:37.328 or generative experiences I had, 0:04:37.328,0:04:38.656 is watching the launching of a ship 0:04:38.656,0:04:41.027 when I was about four years old in Marin Shipyard— 0:04:41.027,0:04:42.739 I went there with my father. 0:04:45.750,0:04:51.780 To see a big, massive, obdurate shape[br]being launched where it becomes 0:04:51.780,0:04:55.050 buoyant and free[br]and afloat and adrift— 0:04:56.019,0:04:59.900 where it changes from something that’s massive[br]to something that’s weightless, 0:04:59.900,0:05:03.500 was something that affected me, that I never[br]forgot about, 0:05:03.500,0:05:06.584 and for a while, it really became a reocurring[br]dream. 0:06:11.056,0:06:13.349 MAN: What do you do in that book all the time,[br]Richard? 0:06:13.349,0:06:16.186 SERRA: Um, I keep track of myself. 0:06:16.186,0:06:17.680 MAN: Are you writing poetry? 0:06:18.092,0:06:21.720 SERRA: No, it’s a way of keeping your eye[br]and hand together. 0:06:21.720,0:06:23.750 I started drawing when I was very, very young 0:06:23.750,0:06:26.480 in order to compete for, I guess, affection 0:06:26.480,0:06:29.130 with my parents, because I had an older brother 0:06:29.646,0:06:30.550 who was very articulate, 0:06:30.550,0:06:31.980 and very good-looking, very tall— 0:06:31.980,0:06:33.380 And I was like the little runt. 0:06:33.380,0:06:36.470 And in order to kind of capture my parents’[br]imagination, 0:06:36.470,0:06:38.229 after dinner I could make drawings every night. 0:06:38.229,0:06:40.120 And they would support those drawings. 0:06:40.120,0:06:44.440 And so it became something that I could do[br]that was personal and private to me 0:06:44.440,0:06:49.540 as a way of keeping my hand and eye coordinated[br]in relation to what I would see. 0:06:49.540,0:06:52.910 So if my father and my brother were taking[br]the car apart, 0:06:52.910,0:06:54.590 I would draw the parts. 0:06:54.590,0:06:58.160 So I’ve always done it, and it’s a way[br]just to keep 0:06:58.160,0:07:02.290 in touch with, [br]not only everyday life for me, 0:07:02.290,0:07:05.440 in a diaristic notion,[br]but in order to enable me to see. 0:07:05.440,0:07:08.310 And I think the eye is king og a muscle. 0:07:08.310,0:07:11.172 And the more you draw, the better shape[br]the muscle’s in, 0:07:11.172,0:07:12.378 actually, the better you see. 0:07:12.997,0:07:16.759 I don’t particularly think of notation drawing[br]that I do every day as drawing per se— 0:07:16.759,0:07:20.400 I make other drawings in which I deal with[br]autonomous things in the world, 0:07:20.400,0:07:21.607 and the history of drawing. 0:07:21.813,0:07:26.470 But in terms of just informing myself,[br]as a way of keeping a dialogue doing, 0:07:26.470,0:07:28.936 unlike Woody Allen talking into [br]a tape recorder, I draw. 0:07:33.370,0:07:35.215 MAN: You’re not going to clear it. 0:07:37.669,0:07:39.008 SERRA: It’s this way, yeah? 0:07:39.008,0:07:41.010 Take it back up, take it back up. 0:07:48.145,0:07:50.480 That’s the moment,[br]it’s called a 5-millimeter moment— 0:07:52.790,0:07:56.280 it’s where you have to set it[br]and you have to get it within 5 millimeters. 0:07:57.765,0:07:58.680 MAN: Hey, John… 0:08:03.093,0:08:06.940 This is going to be a nightmare,[br]trying to weld these… 0:08:06.940,0:08:08.560 I didn’t tell it to rain, come on. 0:08:09.488,0:08:11.268 Blame it on Tony, he picked the date. 0:08:12.711,0:08:14.042 MAN: It’s a real collaboration— 0:08:14.847,0:08:19.135 for all the steelworkers putting this together[br]and everybody that’s involved— 0:08:19.267,0:08:22.412 and I think the art is the process[br]as well as the piece. 0:08:26.516,0:08:29.210 But I like the way it’s coming together. 0:08:29.210,0:08:32.067 MAN: Definitely, and it’s like omnipresent. 0:08:32.067,0:08:33.570 SERRA: Yeah, yeah, you can’t get away from[br]it. 0:08:33.570,0:08:34.786 Oh, yeah, it’s right there. 0:08:42.849,0:08:45.000 MAN: Nice job, very nice job. 0:08:50.972,0:08:52.633 SERRA: It’s almost like a pneumatic structure. 0:08:52.633,0:08:53.133 MAN: Pneumatic? 0:08:53.133,0:08:56.272 SERRA: Yeah, because it seems like it’s[br]being stretched 0:08:56.396,0:08:57.659 and pumped from the inside. 0:09:02.478,0:09:03.607 MAN: Where do you want to weld that now? 0:09:03.607,0:09:04.533 MAN: Here. 0:09:05.770,0:09:06.338 MAN: John… 0:09:10.239,0:09:12.620 SERRA: To be able to contain space and hold[br]space 0:09:12.620,0:09:17.179 and make space the content of the work[br]that you’re dealing with 0:09:18.024,0:09:21.006 comes with a certain kind of acuity of understanding 0:09:21.006,0:09:23.006 your relationship to a volume. 0:09:23.440,0:09:26.400 Very simple if I said it’s very different[br]than walking into a telephone booth 0:09:26.400,0:09:29.060 than a football stadium and say, “Oh, yes,[br]I understand— 0:09:29.060,0:09:32.060 telephone booth, claustrophobic; [br]football stadium, vast.” 0:09:32.060,0:09:34.730 If you take something in between[br]the telephone booth 0:09:34.730,0:09:36.050 and the football stadium, you say, 0:09:36.050,0:09:38.810 “I’m dealing with the subtleties of walking[br]across the room, 0:09:38.810,0:09:39.829 “about what’s on the right-hand side, 0:09:39.829,0:09:43.046 “And if you turn around and walk back,[br]what’s on the right-hand side.” 0:10:09.500,0:10:12.010 This piece is generative in that it’s a[br]new piece for me, 0:10:12.010,0:10:13.660 it opens a whole other body, 0:10:13.660,0:10:15.170 a whole other series of work for me. 0:10:15.170,0:10:17.250 I don’t know how that’s going to spill[br]out, 0:10:17.250,0:10:19.440 I don’t know what kinds of works are going[br]to come out of it, 0:10:19.440,0:10:21.519 but there’s still a kind of wonder in that, 0:10:21.519,0:10:24.512 because that piece hasn’t reached closure for me.