Andy Graydon is an artist and filmmaker originally from Maui, Hawai’i. His work is concerned with natural and social ecologies, and with sound and listening as creative practices. Recent projects have focused on island ecologies and the imaginal and narrative forms employed by the natural sciences. His projects frequently engage structures of music such as the ensemble, the score, improvisation and variation, and techniques of the voice. Often ephemeral in nature, Graydon’s work combines minimal physical materials with elements that are absent, fictional, or imaginary.
His work has been presented internationally including shows at the New Museum; Mass MoCA; Berlinische Galerie, Berlin; Frye Art Museum, Seattle; and the Honolulu Biennial. Screenings include the Fulcrum Festival, Los Angeles; the Flaherty Series at Anthology Film Archives; WRO Media Arts Biennial, Poland; Arsenal Institut für Film und Videokunst, Berlin; Millennium Film Archive; Black Maria Film & Video Festival; Worldfest Houston and the Chicago Underground Film Festival.
Grants and fellowships include the McKnight Foundation Fellowship in Media Arts; the MacDowell Fellowship; National Endowment for the Arts Grants for Arts Projects; Film Study Center at Harvard Fellowship; NKD Nordic Artists‘ Center Residency; and the Headlands Center for the Arts Residency. He received his MFA in Radio, Television, and Film from Northwestern University.
Graydon has collaborated widely as a sound artist and composer, including work with Jennifer Walshe, Jan St Werner, Michael Pisaro, Richard Garet, Delia Gonzalez, Stephen Vitiello, David Grubbs, France Jobin, Luke Martin, Kenneth Kirschner, Cecilia Lopez, Zimoun, Emily Manzo, Amnon Wolman, Kato Hideki, John Hudak, Klaus Janek, Yukitomo Hamasaki, Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder.
Graydon used his residency at MacDowell to work on the structure, writing, and early edits for his film Echo’s Answer, shot on Mauna Kea, HI, at two of the observatories for the global Event Horizon Telescope which peers into the black hole at the center of our galaxy. He also made progress on his newest sound work, Carrier, composed from two years of field recordings.
