Watery Ecstatic (21 06 S, 53 36 E)
Ellen Gallagher
American, born 1965
2003
A large cut-paper work in which Gallagher incises a delicate circular ring into the sheet to evoke a watery stain or reef, turning absence and the paper’s surface into the subject.
From a few steps away it reads as a hushed, milky field punctured by a faint, irregular halo of torn and embossed paper that catches light like a shoreline or water ring seen from above.
By treating drawing as a sculptural, near-minimal object that references geographic coordinates and the sea, Gallagher expands how paper can carry mapping, memory, and layered histories in contemporary art.
Medium
Cut paper
Dimensions
60 1/4 x 74" (153 x 188 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase
Accession
92.2005
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
