Ryder Cooley

Ryder Cooley is an installation and performance artist, and inventor of haunted dream worlds that echo political and cultural phenomena of past and present. Video, sound and site-specific lighting create an atmosphere of dis-reality. Rescued materials are transformed into props and garments which reveal incomplete evidence of pasts. Emerging from places of wilderness, post-industrial waste, pollution and decay, these installations give refuge to new habitations of marginal hybrid species. Mythical androgen creatures stem from cracks and crevices as drawings and performance characters. Their bodies are modified through transfigurations that abandon notions of gender and identity. Cooley performs improvisationally and collaboratively within these installations, becoming a Utopian gutter creature.Working resourcefully and sustainably while establishing and maintaining art practices that extend beyond the context of industry and convention is integral to Cooley’s approach. Exchanges with environments and communities in local and international settings are critical to her practice.