Dust Bowl Faeries is a dark-carnival band from the New York Hudson Valley. Their eclectic repertoire of songs draw inspiration from circus, post-punk and Eastern European folk music. Accordion, singing saw, ukulele, lap-steel, acoustic guitar and percussion combine to create the Dust Bowl Faeries otherworldly sound. The band was founded by Ryder Cooley (faerie queen) and her taxidermy spirit animal Hazel the Ram.

A symbiotic transference ritual (ongoing) whereby the human parasite becomes guardian host to the hermaphroditic leech, inviting the leech to cleanse the blood with hirudin venom and gender neutralizing verve.

In this ritual, the performer subverts her gender by opting to feed vampiric leeches, suggesting a departure from the conventional gender mandate to nurture/feed the human infant/parasite. In exchange, the leech offers the medicinal hirudin peptide in this re-presentation of parasitism as symbiotic practice. Created in collaboration with: Dina Shirin (performance/photography), Lee Free (sound/consulation), Elise Passavant (videography), Annette Bragas (stylist/photo assistant), Kahn-Selesnick, Robert Polumbo, Lance Monotone, Sara Pezdek, Lisa M. Thomas, Corey Aldrich, Slink Moss &...

Music/performance series with Hazel, a disembodied taxidermy ram who is symbolically re-gendered and resurrected in the after-life. The intention of this collaboration is to channel the spirit of hazel, who performs silently as Ryders' animal spirit guide. Hazel bears witness to the unnecessary violence and disrespect inflicted upon animals.

videos: https://vimeo.com/171513994

XMALIA, Extinction Cabaret by Ryder Cooley

Directed by Paula Josa Jones, performed with Lady Moon, co-produced by Corey Aldrich

XMALIA is a multi-disciplinary performance featuring live music on ukulele and singing saw with projections, aerial movement and taxidermy animals. This dark tale about extinction features songs about extinct animals such as the Tasmanian Tiger and the Giant Deer, sung by a lost musician who summons the animals back to life for her Graveyard Cabaret. The show was performed in venues including Proctors Mainstage in Schenectady NY and is archived as an album & illustrated book

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/31882660

ANIMALIA, the predecessor to XMALIA, is a performance series, animation & illustrated book. The performance combines live music on accordion & singing saw with movement, aerials and projections.

Exploring metaphors of flight in response to violence & war, Animalia: Stories of Collapse, Calamity & Departure invokes visions of human-animal relations, secret bee societies and haunted circus scenes. When a girl falls under the spell of a mystical deer, she renounces her humanity to become an antlered deer creature. Animalia is a fable that blurs gender divisions and human/animal forms. The project was developed with support from NYFA, Robert Wilson Watermill Center, Experimental TV Center, MacDowell Colony and Yaddo.

Animation: https://vimeo.com/19738863

Installation-performance informed by the extinction and resurrection of a rare mountain goat. The Pyrenean Ibex is said to be the first extinct animal brought back to life (momentarily) via DNA cloning. By collaborating with dead animals, I use my body as vehicle for invocation. Here the Ibex is resurrected as a chimera and an oracle.

INSTALLATION-crime scene: drawings, props, objects, video, sound, lighting, fabric. PERFORMANCE: 2.5 hour improvised musical performance on singing saw, with vocalist Lady Moon. VIDEO: (modified archival film circa 1950)... Stage: 2 women watch as offshore oil rig is built... Ceiling: Museum taxidermist prepares carcass for display...SOUND: piano, saw & voice recorded on-site. Guitar & additional sounds by Earth Blue.

TWENTY MILES Radio Research Walking Performance by C. Ryder Cooley with reembodied deer, June 13, 2010. Created for Deep Cycle Mobile 49 Radio Project by Maximillian Goldfarb

On June 13th 2010 I walked for twenty miles with my collaborator, a taxidermy deer. Travelling from Hudson to Cairo, NY, we carried an illuminated oil lantern from the Fire Fighters Museum to a Lukoil gas station where we intersected with the Deep Cycle-Mobile 49 radio lab. Along the way, we investigated the roadside landscape, gathering data for radio transmissions and transporting the roadside dead to a Lukoil burial.

Site-responsive/durational installation-performance series commissioned by the Robert Wilson Watermill Center, New Island Festival, Governors Island, NY. Over the course of 7 days I stitched 32 goose feathers into my skin twice a day for 2.5 hours. The final performance took flight in a tree.

INSTALLATION: Responding to the military history of the island, images of flight and residue filled two stories of a Colonels home. Names of women and children extracted from cemetary records echoed throughout the rooms, interspersed with other military texts. For more images see: http://carolynrydercooley.org/installation.html

Trapeze performance beneath an industrial bridge, created during an Artist Residency at Contemporary Artist Center, North Adams, MA. 2006.

outdoor site-specific aerial performances, created during a residency at Yaddo, 2009

Interactive musical improvisation series, 2006-2009

Three hour musical performances occured within video-sound installation environments. Hudson Opera House. Hudson, NY. December 2006 & 2007.

musical collaboration with Todd Chandler. CD's and iTunes downloads available via http://www.myspace.com/fallharbor

Collaborative performance with Sara E. Worden exploring shadows, stilts, recorded audio, video and live music. presented at the Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy NY March 2007

Musical collaboration with dancer & writer Anah-K, 1996-2003, San Francisco CA. For more information and recordings please visit Out of Round Records