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Title
CYCLE
Artist
Rebecca Bird
Year
2026
Medium
MP4, painted animation
Dimensions
5,440 × 1,260 px
Credits
Soundtrack: SUNJIRŨ (a.k.a. Kadallah Burrowes)
Description of Artwork
Animation followed naturally from observational painting. I sat in the back yard every day painting the buds on a cherry branch, then compiled the sequence into painted stop action. It is different from a photographed movie in that each moment is made through close human attention: I take time apart and reassemble it manually.
In the original story of Cinderella , the magic is her secret relationship to nature. Nuts transform into the things she needs and small creatures help her toward her apotheosis of romance. Out of whatever corrupt materials are at hand my work is a substitute body to propitiate that antagonist, the happy ending. Friendship Pagoda is an old fashioned firework, a cardboard disk that spins, shoots flames, explodes upwards into a tower, and then burns out.
A handmade piece of time offers a respite from an overwhelming environment of reflecting surfaces. It brings attention to processes of organic life besides growth; decay, repair, and synthesis. My work offers a space in which to feel how we are constructing the next moment together.
Watch: CYCLE - Video
About the Artist
Primarily known as a painter, Rebecca Bird’s interventions into the public realm include animation, performance, murals, and instigating the non-profit space Tomato Mouse in Weeksville.
Bird has had solo shows at Kopeikin Gallery, Russel Day Gallery, Voookhyang, William Holman Gallery, Wave Hill and other venues. She has performed at the Hammer Museum, The Armory Show, Fumetto Festival and Issue Project Room, and shown her animation at Lincoln Center, the Everhart Museum and on Triple Canopy and The New York Times online. She has recieved numerous grants and residencies. Her work is held in collections including MOMA, NY.
Rebecca Bird received her BFA from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 2000, having attended the Yale Summer School of Music and Art in 1999. She was a Fulbright Fellow to Japan in Painting 2000-1, researching Nihonga. Before university she apprenticed in egg tempera painting with painter Michael Bergt. From 2007 to 2011 she drew Middle Kingdom relief fragments for the Metropolitan Museum on site in Dashur, Egypt. She has painted many carousels for amusement parks around the world.
