Artists as Gardens Begins with “Cave Rainbow in Negative Color”
Philadelphia’s cultural calendar just gained a new spring ritual. Calder Gardens is launching its inaugural series, Artists as Gardens, with a commissioned concert by multidisciplinary artist, composer, and musician Gryphon Rue. Titled “Cave Rainbow in Negative Color”, the program takes place on Saturday, March 21, with two performances—one at 5:30 p.m. and a second at 7:21 p.m., timed precisely to sunset and aligned with the beginning of the spring equinox.
The concept behind Artists as Gardens is as poetic as it is practical: contemporary artists are invited to think of their practice as a garden—something that evolves through seasons, cycles, and shifts in the natural world—so each commission can unfold over time instead of landing as a one-and-done moment.
This is the first-ever sound-based performance at Calder Gardens. It’s not a concert that simply happens inside a gallery—it’s a work designed to live in conversation with the space, with the collection, and with the audience’s attention. Artists as Gardens is positioning Calder Gardens as a living site for exchange, reflection, and transformation, and Rue’s piece sets that tone immediately by asking listeners to experience time not as a schedule, but as something felt, remembered, and even distorted.
Artists as Gardens Turns the Gallery into an Immersive Soundscape
Rue’s program is intentionally structured as two distinct experiences in one evening. The first is described as a heterogeneous solo magnetic tape piece. The second is a trio performance of a slower, meditative work. Both performances are arranged to create a dynamic, immersive soundscape, with musicians positioned throughout the gallery in dialogue with Alexander Calder’s works. I love that detail, because it suggests the room itself becomes an instrument—sound moving through sculpture, audience members listening and looking at once, and the entire space shifting from passive display to active encounter. Artists as Gardens is reframing how we move through art and how art moves through us.
“Cave Rainbow in Negative Color” is conceived as a sound collage for magnetic tape and electronics, pulling from field recordings captured locally in Calder Gardens and along the Schuylkill River, while also drawing on ethnographic archives and obscure corners of the internet. The work engages natural processes like cycles, feedback, and emergence, moving between notated cues and improvisation so that sources entwine and morph “like a private weather system.”
That description alone feels like a promise: a piece you don’t just hear, but inhabit. In another layer of the evening, Rue also presents a new arrangement of Giusto Pio’s Motore Immobile & Ananta, with Rue on voice and organ, joined by Julia Den Boer on organ and piano and Odetta Hartman on violin. Motore Immobile references Aristotle’s concept of the “prime mover,” the cause of all motion in the universe that itself is not moved by anything prior—an elegant conceptual pairing for a night built around time, movement, and the invisible forces that shape what we feel.
Artists as Gardens Sets a Year-Round Rhythm at Calder Gardens
Artists as Gardens is meant to be the core of a broader slate of programs that activate the space year-round, extending Calder’s spirit of experimentation and collaboration into time-based works. As Juana Berrío, Marsha Perelman Senior Director of Programs of Calder Gardens, puts it: “We are thrilled to welcome multidisciplinary artist Gryphon Rue to present the first sonic experience at Calder Gardens and kick off our new Artists as Gardens commission series.”
(L to R) Odetta Hartman; Gryphon Rue and Julia Den Boer
She continues, “Each Artists as Gardens commission embraces the same experimental ethos that shaped the work of Alexander Calder in the 20th century, activating it through time-based works that unfold in dialogue with the present moment.” And the line that really captures the emotional intention behind the programming is this: “Like all our programming, this concert is conceived to elevate the mind, body, and spirit, bringing the space to life as a place of both cultural enrichment and personal renewal.”
Rue’s own excitement is just as direct, and it grounds the night in process rather than hype. “I am delighted to be the first commissioned artist in the new Artists as Gardens series at Calder Gardens,” he says. “I will be debuting a new solo piece titled ‘Cave Rainbow in Negative Color’, which collages field recordings captured at Calder Gardens and along the Schuylkill River, with ethnographic archival selections. I will also be presenting a trio performance with incredible musicians, Julia Den Boer and Odetta Hartman, of Motore Immobile & Ananta—a meditative work by the Italian spiritual minimalist Giusto Pio.”
Artists as Gardens is inviting us into an unfolding relationship with artists—one that develops across months, returns in variations, and encourages repeat visits the way a favorite park does when the light changes.
Practical details matter for a night like this, and Calder Gardens keeps it clear. On Saturday, March 21, doors open at 5 p.m. for the first performance, with the concert beginning at 5:30 p.m. For the second performance, doors open at 6:50 p.m., and the concert begins at 7:21 p.m. Tickets are $65, with member tickets at $50, and seating is first-come, first-served.
Beyond Rue’s commission, future Artists as Gardens programs will include commissions by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer and artist Raven Chacon and Chilean poet, visual artist, and activist Cecilia Vicuña, with dates and additional details to be announced in the coming months.
Calder Gardens is stacking the calendar with recurring anchors: Contemplation Walks offered daily as guided reflective journeys through indoor and outdoor spaces; the Moon Alignment Series tied to the lunar cycle twice per month after hours; People Talking, a conversation series centering storytelling and interdisciplinary dialogue; Pictures in Motion, a film and video art series focused on motion, time, and sound; and Silent Days, a monthly reduced-capacity experience designed for quiet attention and sensory awareness, including support for visitors who are neurodivergent, living with dementia, or have other sensory sensitivities.
Artists as Gardens is arriving as a premiere, but it’s designed to grow.
Images: Lena Shkoda and Pascal Perich
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