Rebecca Bird

March 30th, 2009

In gentle tones of pink, green, blue, brown, the watercolours are layered. The soft, subtle washes layer over one another to form organic shapes reminiscent of flowers or evening clouds. These are the nuclear bomb blasts that make up Rebecca Bird’s exhibition Everything That Ever Existed Still Exists.

On her own work, Bird expresses that “The paintings attempt to duplicate mental distancing techniques. The formality and static-ness, the clean paper and cool shades of watercolor disassociate aesthetic appreciation from recognition of the subject.” It is interesting that she describes these pieces with the vocabulary of cold science and analysis. Yes, they do not appear at once to be nuclear blasts; some seem more like botanical illustrations. Many are cool and analytical, isolated blasts in the white expanse of watercolour paper. Others, however, those which fill the paper more fully, are like semi-abstract skyscapes, warm with associations of sunsets and weather. It is these that betray the emotional content of their subject matter, ironically perhaps as they are executed in similar colours as those used in typical floral watercolours paintings. We expect pain and ugliness from a nuclear blast but what Bird offers us are two very unexpected aesthetic experiences… scientific illustration on the one hand and abstract watercolour paintings on the other.

Entry Filed under: American, Artists, Painters