“Mixed Feelings,” the University of Texas MFA Studio Art exhibition, closed almost two weeks ago, and yet the work in it, created by massively talented graduate students such as Ezra Masch, Erica Botkin, and Yun K. Shin (hear me now: look up their work) is still fresh. There may be none more so than the sculptural and digital print work of KC Crow Maddux, who uses bodily images alongside filmic and commercial materials – thereby asking anxious questions about consumption and identity.
But graduating most importantly means getting the hell out of school, and, consequently, that school-run studio.
Austin Chronicle: You’re in the process of moving out of your studio. What’s that like?
KC Crow Maddux: Well, my playlist started out with dance tracks and glam rock – T. Rex and Queen – and by last night I was listening to Bonnie Raitt! I needed to feel it. It’s like a breakup.
AC: So it’s an emotional thing?
KCM: At first, I looked at it like a big chore, and once I started wrapping things up here, I had to come to terms with the process of erasing myself from a space. I’m burying my work, because I paint directly on the wall, and so I’m grieving a little bit. But I’m also excited about getting away from the way this space has formatted my work.
AC: How so?
KCM: Someone at my job made a comment about my artwork being so professional, and perhaps the word she was looking for was “academic.” And that’s not really my goal – though it may be where I’m coming from at this point. I’m really excited to see what happens when I get a whole new set of constraints. I think there will be a divorce from the object and a movement towards ideas connected to community, disseminating information, and broadcast.
AC: Is there stuff you found when packing up your studio that you didn’t expect to find?
KCM: Yes. There were some embarrassing moments but also some great things, and I thought, “Oh! That wasn’t a dead end. I can pick that back up.” As things were going into the Dumpster, I was shooting with my iPhone to keep an archive of these studio tests. So they didn’t actually go into the Dumpster, per se, but came back as information.
AC: What are you still thinking about? What was the most promising of the things you unearthed?
KCM: Well, there was some work on glass, stacked like strata of transparencies with paint. And it makes sense in a way. I was really surprised, because I don’t paint, really, or not effectively. When I come back across these things, they’re fresh, and I can start working with them again.
You can see more of KC Crow Maddux’s work at www.kccrowmaddux.blogspot.com.
This article appears in May 25 • 2012.