Dust Bowl Faeries, dark carnival dream music The Leech House Series RYDER & HAZEL XMALIA-Animalia FAUNAL RESPIRATIONS, Hudson Opera House, Hudson NY, Oct '10 TWENTY MILES Radio Research Walking Performance FEATHER INFIRMARY River Apparitions Yaddo performances Vestuary Operatics, Exit Art and White Box performances Singing Tree  Hudson Opera House installation-performance Fall Harbor Hoofprints of a Spooked Game Performance Down River, duets
Music-Performance

Dust Bowl Faeries, dark carnival dream music

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.

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Dust Bowl Faeries
Dust Bowl Faeries
Dust Bowl Faeries
Dust Bowl Faeries
Dust Bowl Faeries
Dust Bowl Faeries
Dust Bowl Faeries
Dust Bowl Faeries
Dust Bowl Faeries
Dust Bowl Faeries

The Leech House Series

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 &...

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The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series
The Leech House Series

RYDER & HAZEL

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

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Revival
Revival
Still Life
Still Life
Still Life
Still Life
Still Life
Still Life
Hazels' Dream
Hazels' Dream
Ryder & Hazel
Ryder & Hazel
Ryder & Hazel
Ryder & Hazel
Body as Omen
Body as Omen
Body as Omen
Body as Omen
Owl Spell
Owl Spell

XMALIA-Animalia

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

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XMALIA
XMALIA
XMALIA
XMALIA
XMALIA
XMALIA
XMALIA
XMALIA
Animalia
Animalia
Animalia
Animalia
Animalia
Animalia
Animalia Book
Animalia Book
PRESS: Metroland cover story p.1
PRESS: Metroland cover story p.1
PRESS: Albany Times Union p.1
PRESS: Albany Times Union p.1

FAUNAL RESPIRATIONS, Hudson Opera House, Hudson NY, Oct '10

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.

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installation
installation
performance
performance
performance
performance
performance
performance
installation
installation
Installation
Installation
Installation
Installation
installation
installation
installation
installation

TWENTY MILES Radio Research Walking Performance

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.

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Rip Van Winkle Bridge
Rip Van Winkle Bridge
Hudson Correctional Facility
Hudson Correctional Facility
Route 23
Route 23
Mount Merino Road
Mount Merino Road
Location One: Firefighters Museum
Location One: Firefighters Museum
Indicent Report
Indicent Report
Flag Day Intervention
Flag Day Intervention
Twenty Miles
Twenty Miles

FEATHER INFIRMARY

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

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Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary
Feather Infirmary

River Apparitions

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

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River Trapeze
River Trapeze
River Trapeze
River Trapeze
Beneath the Bridge
Beneath the Bridge
River Trapeze
River Trapeze

Yaddo performances

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

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Icehouse
Icehouse
Icehouse
Icehouse
Skyhorse at the Icehouse
Skyhorse at the Icehouse
Skyhorse at the Icehouse
Skyhorse at the Icehouse
Skyhorse at the Icehouse
Skyhorse at the Icehouse
Fern Trapeze
Fern Trapeze
Fern Trapeze
Fern Trapeze
Fern Trapeze
Fern Trapeze

Vestuary Operatics, Exit Art and White Box performances

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Deer Suspension
Deer Suspension
Deer Suspension
Deer Suspension
Vestuary Operatics
Vestuary Operatics
Reconstruction. Exit Art
Reconstruction. Exit Art
Blood Deer
Blood Deer
Blood Deer
Blood Deer
Blood Deer at White Box
Blood Deer at White Box

Singing Tree

Interactive musical improvisation series, 2006-2009

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Singing Tree
Singing Tree
Singing Tree
Singing Tree
Singing Tree
Singing Tree
Singing Tree
Singing Tree
Singing Tree
Singing Tree
Singing Tree
Singing Tree

Hudson Opera House installation-performance

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

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Phantom Serenades 2006
Phantom Serenades 2006
Phantom Serenades 2006
Phantom Serenades 2006
Phantom Serenades 2006
Phantom Serenades 2006
Phantom Serenades 2006
Phantom Serenades 2006

Fall Harbor

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

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Train tunnel concert
Train tunnel concert
Twilight Shantys and Aviary Songs
Twilight Shantys and Aviary Songs
Twilight Shantys and Aviary Songs
Twilight Shantys and Aviary Songs
Twilight Shantys and Aviary Songs
Twilight Shantys and Aviary Songs

Hoofprints of a Spooked Game

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

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Hoofprints of a Spooked Game
Hoofprints of a Spooked Game
Hoofprints of a Spooked Game
Hoofprints of a Spooked Game
Hoofprints of a Spooked Game
Hoofprints of a Spooked Game
Hoofprints of a Spooked Game
Hoofprints of a Spooked Game

Performance

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Slow Float
Slow Float
Slow Float
Slow Float
Riverbird Serenade
Riverbird Serenade
Riverbird Serenade
Riverbird Serenade
Nest of Secret Hovering
Nest of Secret Hovering
Nest of Secret Hovering
Nest of Secret Hovering
Phantom Showroom
Phantom Showroom
Blood Deer
Blood Deer
Serenades for Factories and Mills
Serenades for Factories and Mills
    Bridge Serenade
Bridge Serenade
Rope Walkers
Rope Walkers
Daughters of Houdini
Daughters of Houdini

Down River, duets

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

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Accordion Dewette
Accordion Dewette
film still
film still
film still
film still

Contact rydercooley@gmail.com

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