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Sculptor Rick McCoy
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Semester 3 - Fall 2019                     Texas Tech University


Artist Statement

Anthropocene
 
In the last 5 years, scientists have discovered two new classes of rocks near Hawaii called plastiglomerats and pyroplastics. All the littered plastics caught in the ocean have been absorbed by active volcanoes and reformed into new rock. 
 
Just as this material has re-identified itself, my work uses found materials in an evidentiary way to defamiliarize and recontextualize them. Through this, I question their functionality and our dependence on them.



Plastiglomerats - medium.com/material-monday/plastiglomerate-62f8129f52a0
Pyroplastics - www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/2019/09/pyroplastics-a-new-type-of-plastic-pollution/

The Marfa Intensive

The Marfa Intensive is an unforgettable experience of collective art-making in the internationally renowned art town of Marfa, Texas. A collaboration between Texas Tech's School of Art and School of Theatre and Dance, the Marfa Intensive centers on the creation and exhibition of new works of visual art. Artists will have the invaluable opportunity to work together as a collective that is more than the sum of its parts; to consider the relations between theatrer and visual art; to practice building form quickly, spontaneously, and boldly; and to learn about post-studio and body-based art practices.

We will also take field trips to the Judd Foundation, the Chinati Foundation, and other regional destinations, offering a complex portrait of the town that legendary minimalist artist Donald Judd made his home

We had two exhibitions and a performance that were yielded out of this amazing experience. The performance and first exhibition happened while in Marfa TX on 08/02/2019 and the second exhibition was put on at the School of Art's Studio Gallery on 12/11/2019.

Break Ground

             The earth around us vast and arid, above our heads the awning protects us. The squally winds hurl themselves across gritty landscape. Providing a passive soundtrack to our workdays, dilating sheet metal shifts constantly in the summer conditions. Breaking ground is disagreeable; small rocks complicate as we cast each blow asunder. The wind breathes over the compacted dirt strained from drought. It is hard to break ground.This body of work was created in response to our residency at a field station two miles from the Crowley Theatre. We challenged ourselves to think about making work not as individuals, but as a unified collective we call the No Fly Zone. Through a process of group experimentation with installation and performance, we highlighted the agency of natural and artificial elements (wind, plants, bones, plastic, t-shirts, the sounds of electromagnetism that surrounds us), calling special attention to the dirt by moving it from our desert landscape to the controlled space of the theater. In transforming our materials, we considered our planet’s history, geologic formations, and the material traces of time.
Break Ground II 

            For this installation No Fly Zone has transported the show we put on in Marfa over the summer to our home base of Texas Tech. We have recreated our response to the environment, by using what we found surrounding us in the here and now on campus. We again searched for elements to highlight such as wind, plants, and trash debris.
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