C. Ryder Cooley
Animalia: Stories of Collapse, Calamity, and Departure
Friday, May 1st
8 p.m.
The Watermill Center
39 Watermill Towd Road
Water Mill, New York 11976
Reservations [required]: crydercooley.eventbrite.com
C. Ryder Cooley, the multimedia artist and musician, is currently at the Watermill Center as a spring artist-in-residence, developing her new work, Animalia: Stories of Collapse, Calamity, and Departure. Through aerial movement, projection and live music on accordion, upright bass and singing saw, Animalia, invokes visions of human and animal interrelations, secret bee societies and haunted circus scenes. Long Island and New York City audiences will have a first opportunity to experience the work on May 1 at 8:00 p.m., in a public studio performance at Watermill. Todd Chandler participates as a musician and performer in Animalia, along with violinist Rachel Winard and Natalie Agee, an acrobat, aerialist and performer who runs Ruby Streak Trapeze Studio in Brooklyn. Exploring metaphors of flight in response to times of violence and war, the narrative, which Cooley describes as an "interspecies fairytale," travels through a sequence of dystrophic tableaux. When the performer falls under the spell of a deer, she at last escapes her humanity and becomes an antlered deer creature. Appropriating the masculine power symbol of the buck rack for use by a feminine character, the performance blurs the division between masculine/feminine identity and human/animal forms.
In her unique body of work, Cooley weaves together chimeric images with found props and forgotten objects to create cinematic performances and installation spaces. Dedicated to presenting work in unique and site-specific settings, Ryder has participated in a wide range of public works, educational projects and international shows. She was named Best Performance Artist of the NY Capital District in 2006 & 2007. Her selected works have been performed and installed at locations including White Box and Exit Art galleries in NYC; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Theater Artaud in San Francisco CA; Contemporary Artists Center in N. Adams MA; Proctors Mainstage Theater in Schenectady NY; Pan American Art Projects in Miami FL; and public art projects in Indonesia, El Salvador, France and the Czech Republic. In 2007 Ryder began working with interdisciplinary artist, musician and filmmaker Todd Chandler on a series of musical collaborations called Fall Harbor. In 2008 they produced a CD, Songs from Fall Harbor, which is currently distributed through Blood Onion Records. Todd Chandler participates as a musician and performer in Animalia.
Ryder received and MFA in Integrated Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic in 2008, an MA in Combined Media from SUNY Albany in 2006 and a BFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1993. From 1993-2004 she was an active member of the San Francisco art and music communities. She is currently based in Troy NY, USA.
Animalia: Stories of Collapse, Calamity, and Departure
Friday, May 1st
8 p.m.
The Watermill Center
39 Watermill Towd Road
Water Mill, New York 11976
Reservations [required]: crydercooley.eventbrite.com
C. Ryder Cooley, the multimedia artist and musician, is currently at the Watermill Center as a spring artist-in-residence, developing her new work, Animalia: Stories of Collapse, Calamity, and Departure. Through aerial movement, projection and live music on accordion, upright bass and singing saw, Animalia, invokes visions of human and animal interrelations, secret bee societies and haunted circus scenes. Long Island and New York City audiences will have a first opportunity to experience the work on May 1 at 8:00 p.m., in a public studio performance at Watermill. Todd Chandler participates as a musician and performer in Animalia, along with violinist Rachel Winard and Natalie Agee, an acrobat, aerialist and performer who runs Ruby Streak Trapeze Studio in Brooklyn. Exploring metaphors of flight in response to times of violence and war, the narrative, which Cooley describes as an "interspecies fairytale," travels through a sequence of dystrophic tableaux. When the performer falls under the spell of a deer, she at last escapes her humanity and becomes an antlered deer creature. Appropriating the masculine power symbol of the buck rack for use by a feminine character, the performance blurs the division between masculine/feminine identity and human/animal forms.
In her unique body of work, Cooley weaves together chimeric images with found props and forgotten objects to create cinematic performances and installation spaces. Dedicated to presenting work in unique and site-specific settings, Ryder has participated in a wide range of public works, educational projects and international shows. She was named Best Performance Artist of the NY Capital District in 2006 & 2007. Her selected works have been performed and installed at locations including White Box and Exit Art galleries in NYC; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Theater Artaud in San Francisco CA; Contemporary Artists Center in N. Adams MA; Proctors Mainstage Theater in Schenectady NY; Pan American Art Projects in Miami FL; and public art projects in Indonesia, El Salvador, France and the Czech Republic. In 2007 Ryder began working with interdisciplinary artist, musician and filmmaker Todd Chandler on a series of musical collaborations called Fall Harbor. In 2008 they produced a CD, Songs from Fall Harbor, which is currently distributed through Blood Onion Records. Todd Chandler participates as a musician and performer in Animalia.
Ryder received and MFA in Integrated Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic in 2008, an MA in Combined Media from SUNY Albany in 2006 and a BFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1993. From 1993-2004 she was an active member of the San Francisco art and music communities. She is currently based in Troy NY, USA.
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