Since 2005, I've collaborated with MacArthur Award-winning artist Shahzia Sikander in creating digital animations. These works use her drawings and paintings, along with historical imagery that is processed and manipulated in a variety of software applications to add movement. Animation approaches include keyframing, as well as simulations that involve particles, cloth, and rigid and soft body dynamics.
Several of the works are scored by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun. Often installed in a gallery exhibition format, the animations have been showcased across the United States, Europe, and Asia, including the Armory Show, Karachi Biennial, Pace Foundation, Museum Maxxi, among many others. "Singing Suns" is on long-term display at UBS in Century City, CA, and "Disruption as Rapture" is on permanent display at the PMA.
Soundtrack by composer Du Yun.
Duration: 4 min 16 sec
Dims: 3840x2160px
This animation uses historical imagery processed in After Effects with Red Giant Plugins, Cinema 4D, and X-Particles.
Featured as a Time Square Midnight Moment, September 2023.
Midnight Moment photographs by Maria Baranova and Michael Hull.
Reckoning sequence overview.
Soundtrack by composer Du Yun.
Duration: 10 min 7 sec
Dims: 3840x2160px
This animation uses historical imagery processed in After Effects with Red Giant Plugins.
Currently on permanent display in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Image above from outdoor installation at the Aga Kahn museum in Toronto, 2017.
Disruption as Rapture sequence overview.
Soundtrack by composer Du Yun.
Duration: 3 min 24 sec
Dimens: 3484x1056px
This animation uses the artists work and historical imagery processed in After Effects with Red Giant Plugins
On long-term display at UBS Bank in Century City, CA.
On view at Moynihan Train Hall, New York City, November 2023–January 2024.
Soundtrack by composer Du Yun.
Duration: ~2 min 30 sec
Dimensions: Variable
This animation uses the artists work and historical imagery processed in After Effects with Red Giant Plugins
Featured as a Time Square Midnight Moment, September 2015.
Soundtrack by composer Du Yun.
Duration: 15 min 25 sec
Dimensions: 5760x1080
For this work I created the particle systems and consulted on approach and techniques.
Duration: 3 min 10 sec
Dimensions: 1920x1080
Duration: 7 min 12 sec
Dimensions: 1920x1080
Project Team
Shahzia Sikander, Artist
Patrick O'Rourke, Animation