C. Ryder Cooley
C. Ryder Cooley has rigged a trapeze in her studio. “It’s too short,” she says, “but at least I can keep in shape and not turn into a ‘studio potato’.”
Her latest work is a huge performance involving trapeze and aerials but, understandably, it has been difficult figuring out where to perform it. She’s “always wanted to fly” but says she has thus far been reluctant to take the risk of attaching a trapeze to the ceiling. With the help of VSC’s plant director and the sculpture technician, she figured out how to do it safely and now there is the possibility of performing in just about any building…. A breakthrough!
Ryder expected progress when she came to VSC, not to mention a heated studio, unlike hers in Troy, New York. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so productive as I am here. It’s an inspiring place for me.” She likes the idea that a community of artists surrounds her, and also that the staff are also artists.
“It’s really good to know there are people working for art in this culture, where so much is about consuming and making money. It’s refreshing to be in a community where people are creating,” says Ryder. “It makes me feel at peace.”
Ryder, a Joan Mitchell-VSC Fellow, attempts to recreate scenes from her imagination—through found and altered objects, drawings and historical research-- and performs in the spaces she creates to bring the work alive. Antique family pillowcases, reconstructions of little girl’s dresses, and drawings from her daily experience of animals and nature have transformed Ryder’s VSC studio into an installation-in-progress.
Ryder considers her parents to be among her most important artistic influences because they shaped her love for found objects and of the natural world. Her father, a “romantic”, taught her how to scavenge and explore at an early age. Wherever Ryder goes, she collects and absorbs the environment that surrounds her. “They are pieces of a puzzle, a story I put together,” she says.
photo courtesy of Howard Romero
