Gryphon Rue is an electro-acoustic composer / improviser, songwriter, and curator in the field of audiovisual culture.
Works internationally
Based in Brooklyn, NY
Write to me: gryphonrue@gmail.com
Rue performs with Benton C Bainbridge in the media art duo Rue Bainbridge, which explores the intersection of expanded cinema with experimental music in relation to specific sites and audiences. Rue Bainbridge can be viewed as a live conversation between a sound artist and video artist. Rue Bainbridge are the recipients of the inaugural Nam Jun Paik and Shigeko Kubota Video Art Prize (2019). Rue Bainbridge have been presented by Hauser & Wirth, The Hepworth Wakefield, Slate Projects, Center for Visual Music, Public Works at Governor’s Island, Andrew Freedman Home, and Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation. Projects are realized as immersive audiovisual performances in custom installations, and yield single channel artworks with decentralized provenance.
Rue is the composer / editor of Strange Attractor (Inventory Press & Ballroom Marfa, 2019). Strange Attractor explores the uncertainties and poetics of networks, environmental events, technology, and sound. Expanding beyond its namesake exhibition at Ballroom Marfa in 2017, Strange Attractor features artworks by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Thomas Ashcraft, Robert Buck, Alexander Calder, Beatrice Gibson, Phillipa Horan, Channa Horwitz, Lucky Dragons, Mark Lombardi, Herbert Matter, Haroon Mirza, Douglas Ross, Elias Sime and Iannis Xenakis. The works correspond with conversations between the artists and tropical ecologist Merlin Sheldrake, novelist Chloe Aridjis, and economic sociologist Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra. Texts include contributions by media art historian Douglas Kahn and poet Bernadette Mayer.
Rue is co-curator of the Calder Foundation’s 12-hour projects—continuous programming in non-traditional locations of cross-generational and cross-disciplinary works such as film, sound, static art installations and performance. 2013’s They Might Well Have Been Remnants of the Boat was presented in a neogothic refectory and featured works by artists such as Keith Rowe, Chris Corsano, Jack Goldstein, Christine Sun Kim, Sheila Hicks, Alejandro Guzman and Elka Krajewska vs. John Williams. The previous Oh, you mean cellophane and all that crap took place in a halted construction zone and featured works by artists such as Mary Ellen Bute, Alexandre Singh, C Spencer Yeh vs. Ikue Mori, Anri Sala, Darren Bader, Aki Sasamoto, and James Lee Byars.
HOMEPAGE
Music by Vertical Foliage, “Love is a Grasshopper Nearby”
Forthcoming release on Fuse Editions, UK
Film by Sandy Rower
Big Apple Circus, New York City, 1987
Les Casaly (Guillaume Dufresnoy and Mireille Fenwick), casting cradle
Clown Gordoon, with snake puppet
Dolly Jacobs, aerialist in the rings
Robbie Libbon, performance director in tuxedo
Michael Christensen, clown escorting Dolly Jacobs out of the ring
Anna May, elephant
Ben Williams, elephant trainer
Paul Binder, ringmaster
Vanessa Thomas, riding Anna May
Bill Buckles and Barbara Woodcock, elephant owners
DISCOGRAPHY
2019. Foliage of Caves, LP, Soap Library (forthcoming)
2019. Vertical Foliage, Love is a Grasshopper Nearby, LP, Fuse Editions (forthcoming)
2018. Google Portrait (ft. Christine Sun Kim & Dean Wareham), single, Tigersushi Records
2017. GR1: Parity mix, Hartzine
2016. Google Portrait EP ft. Joakim, Tigersushi Records
2015. Guilt Vacation LP, El Tryptophan, self-released, vinyl distributed by Wharf Cat Records
2012. Good mourning, Short companions EP, collaboration with Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips,
self-released
2005. Peyos and the Plastic Mohawk EP, produced by Jason Rabinowitz with The Bloodsugars, self-released
GUEST APPEARANCES
2019. Eliot Krimsky, Wave in Time LP, (singing saw), Pretty Purgatory
2018. Dean Wareham Vs. Cheval Sombre LP, (singing saw), Gotta Groove
2016. High Water, Crush LP, (lyrics and guitars), Other People
2012. Odetta Hartman, Tally Marks EP, (singing saw), self-released
2009. Peter Yarrow, Day Is Done children’s book, (vocals), Sterling Publishing
SOUNDTRACKS
2018. Gropius Memory Palace, Ben Thorp Brown, World Premiere: Saint Louis Art Museum, European Premiere: International Film Festival Rotterdam, North American Premiere: New York Film Festival
2018. Video trailer for Calder: Nonspace, Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles
2016. My Art, Laurie Simmons (composed by Will Epstein), electric guitar, World Premiere: Venice International Film Festival, North American Premiere: Tribeca Film Festival
2012. Alexander Calder’s Mobiles: Eucalyptus (1940), Black Mobile with Hole (1954), Bosquet is the Best Best (1946). Calder Foundation website, filmed by King & Partners
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2019. Music for animated ballets, Calder Stories, Centro Botin, organized in collaboration with the Calder Foundation, New York
2017. Symbol Rush, Curator. Clayton Gallery and Outlaw Art Museum, New York
2017. Strange Attractor, Curator. Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX
2016. The Sump (now H0L0) performance space, Cocurator. New York
2016. Two performances of Earle Brown’s Calder Piece, 1963–66, Curator. Calder Foundation, Earle Brown Foundation, Talujon Percussion Quartet, Friends Seminary, New York
2015. Eureka, Curator of music installations. Pace Gallery, New York
2015. #GauguinSounds, “Ghost curator”. Fondation Beyeler, Basel
2013. They might well have been remnants of the boat, Cocurator. Calder Foundation, The High Line Hotel, New York
2012. Oh, you mean cellophane and all that crap, Cocurator. Calder Foundation, The Mckittrick Hotel, New York
PUBLICATIONS
2019. “Strange Attractor,” Inventory Press + Ballroom Marfa
2019. “Calder and Sound,” Open Space magazine
2018. “Storm Tracker” in Dis-assemb-blies 08, Will Work For Good
2018. “Calder y el sonido”, in Alexander Calder: Teatro de Encuentros, Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires (exhibition catalogue)
2014. “PostcART: Jay Miriam” Contemporary Lynx
2013. “Calder and Sound,” in Alexander Calder: Avant-Garde in Motion, Düsseldorf: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (exhibition
catalogue)
VIDEO ART
2018. LICENSE, with Robert Buck, 11:50 min, color, stereo sound, distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
2018. Google Portrait, with Benton C Bainbridge, Series of Digital Media HD videos in Singular Editions, silent, running times vary
2018. Google Portrait (ft. Christine Sun Kim & Dean Wareham), 4:20 min, color, stereo sound
2016. Google Portrait (ft. Joakim), directed by Benton C Bainbridge, edited by Ian Holden & Gryphon Rue, 4:20 min, color, stereo sound, Digital Media HD video
2016. Beethoven for Relaxation, directed by Max Grey, 2:58, color, stereo sound, Digital Media HD video
2016. Insect Express, directed by Emily Pelstring, 3:25, color, stereo sound, Digital Media HD video, Ottawa International Animation Festival (honorable mention for Best Canadian Animation).
PRESENTATIONS
2019. “Calder and Sound”, Index Festival, The Hepworth Wakefield, England
2019. Round table, “The Lacanian Unconscious: A No-Brainer”, National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, New York City
2018. “Calder and Sound,” Alexander Calder: Radical Inventor, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
2018. Center for Visual Music Symposium, Sonoma State University, Rue Bainbridge: Artists-in-Residence, Public Works Department / Governors Island, New York
2018. Reading Session for Scores, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Trash Panda Collective + Igor Silva, Utrecht
2013. “Calder and Sound,” Avant-Garde in Motion, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
GROUPS
2017- Rue Bainbridge
2017- Vertical Foliage
2011. Odetta and Gryphon
2007-2008. Sediment Club
FESTIVALS
2019. Index Festival, The Hepworth Wakefield, England
2019. Marfa Myths, live @ The Lot Radio
2017. Take Off Festival with Wouter van Reek (Keepvogel), Amsterdam
2016. Festival Hongerige Wolf, Groningen
2014. i = u festival, New York
2012. International Festival of the Voice, Phoenicia, New York
SELECT PERFORMANCES
2019. Pace Gallery, New York City
2019. The Hepworth Wakefield, England 2019. Kathy Acker Awards, New York 2019. Hauser & Wirth presents Rue Bainbridge, Los Angeles
2018. Shigeko Kubota Foundation presents Rue Bainbridge, New York
2018. Slate Projects presents Rue Bainbridge, The Averard Hotel, London
2015. Clayton Patterson: “Outside In” with paintings by Elsa Rensaa, Howl Happening, New York
2015. Lead performer, LYFE™ by Glass Ghost, co-presented by the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center and Performance Space 122, New York
2013. Ensemble piece Vertical Foliage Orchestra, ft. Aaron Moore (Volcano the Bear), Alejandro Antelo- Suarez, Anthony Kingsley, in They might well have been remnants of the boat, Calder Foundation, The High Line Hotel, New York
2012. Ensemble piece Playing The Beetles, ft. Dave Nuss (NNCK), Gabrielle Herbst (GABI), Daniel Fishkin, Odetta Hartman, in Oh, you mean cellophane and all that crap, Calder Foundation, The Mckittrick Hotel, New York
2011. Maybe I Should Have Called it ‘My Life in Nineteen Minutes’, Calder Foundation and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in association with AIR, Art International and the Clocktower Gallery, New York
2011. Borderlines: Not a Manifesto but an Apparition, Senior Thesis Concert I & II, Bard College, New York
2011. USA Wanderlust Tour as folk duo Odetta and Gryphon, with Odetta Bess Hartman
2008. Featured vocalist, Marina Rosenfeld’s Teenage Lontano, Whitney Biennial
2008. June Concert and Awareness Tour, Vietnamese cities and provinces with Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, to raise awareness for victims of AGENT ORANGE, performing on HTV9
ARTISTS RESIDENCIES
2019. CultureHub, New York 2017. Public Works Department, Governor’s Island, New York
2016. NDSM Treehouse, Amsterdam
COLLABORATIONS
2018. Sharon Gal, Feel the Noise, for large ensemble of electric guitars
2014. Busy Day, Christine Sun Kim & Thomas Benno, Droit de Cités
2014. Performer, BOY SHOW by Allison Brainard, Dark Night Theater Festival, 14th street YMCA, New York
1997. Saxophonist and dancer, Gail Gilbert, Folding Time, Thread Waxing Space, New York
INSTALLATIONS
2018. Slate Projects presents Rue Bainbridge, The Averard Hotel, London
2013. Beethoven for Relaxation, in collaboration with sculptor Tom Smith, Delusions, Rox Gallery, New York
2011. Six Degrees of Degradation, Chapel of the Holy Innocents, Bard College, Annandale, New York
FILM APPEARANCES
2013. To Be Forever Wild, dir. David Becker
