C. RYDER COOLEY is an interdisciplinary artist, musician and performer. Weaving together chimeric images with found props and forgotten objects, she creates cinematic performances and installation spaces. Ryder has participated in a wide range of public works, educational projects and international shows. Awarded Best Performance Artist of the NY Capital District in 2006 & 2007, selected works have been performed and installed at locations including: White Box and Exit Art galleries in NYC, Yerba Buena, Intersection for the Arts and Theater Artaud in San Francisco, Proctors Mainstage Theater in Schenectady NY, Pan American Art Projects in Miami FL, Watermill Center in Long Island NY, Gay Pride Festival in Bulgaria and public art projects in Indonesia, El Salvador, France and the Czech Republic.

ANIMALIA: STORIES OF COLLAPSE, CALAMITY AND DEPARTURE
A lyrical fairytale by C. Ryder Cooley, performed with Natalie Agee

ANIMALIA, Stories of Collapse, Calamity and Departure is an inter-species fairytale that combines live music on singing saw, accordion and strings with movement and projection. Performed within a landscape of mesmerizing video and archival film, Animalia invokes visions of secret bee societies and haunted circus scenes.

This 50 minute multimedia performance offers metaphors of flight as departure points from environmental collapse and the hallucinatory effects of war. By appropriating the masculine power symbol of the buck ‘rack’ and reinserting it onto feminine characters, the narrative blurs the divisions between masculine/feminine identity and human/animal forms.

Created by artist-musician C. Ryder Cooley, this project was developed in part at the Byrd-Hoffman Watermill Center and with the support of NYFA, the MacDowell Colony and the Yaddo Foundation.

http://www.vimeo.com/5161326
http://www.carolynrydercooley.com/

rydercooleyatyahoodotcom

Photo: (c) 2009. J. Craig Thompkins