Fugleøen

For Fugleøen (The Bird Island), Tal R returns to a motive which he had worked with ten years before: a view of the lakes which separate Copenhagen’s inner city from the neighbouring residential districts. The small island Fugleøen is located in one of these lakes. Tal R was fascinated by the birds that gather in a treetop on the island – an everyday sight that most Copenhageners probably miss on their morning commute to work. In Tal R’s mind, his fascination for the birds sitting in the tree turned into a painterly question regarding the border between figuration and abstraction. The island lies calmly in the centre of the picture and divides the image horizontally. With minimal gestures and contrasting colours, Tal R captures the brief moment of tension release when the flock of birds bursts into the sky, the split-second in which it is no longer possible to tell the birds from their reflection in the water.