C. Grant Cox III

Newark, DE
Residency: October – November 2013

Project Description
At the end of my two-month residency, I found that it facilitated clarity for the things to come in my artistic practice. I feel I have greater focus on everything from new concepts to operating a studio. There is a better understanding of what I want to accomplish and therefore stronger confidence in my work overall.

Immediacy is a big part in my artistic process and my studio became a dimension of immediate physical thought. Never before had I interacted with a space that was more organism than building. My project was many projects and the place provided me everything necessary to chase the very moment my ideas were birthed. Thoughts of the past and present were growing like fruit from a tree.  

Another important thing to know about my work is that I make things as an extension of my sense of humor. In this space I experimented with commonplace or domestic objects that I find, to some degree, funny or ridiculous. I really tried to make everything that came into my mind in the time I was in residence. For as many ideas that I come up with in a day, this task became a daunting, yet delightful challenge. The images are a few highlights of the happenings in this realm.

About the Artist
C. Grant Cox IIII is from a small town in southern Illinois. In 2009, Cox received his BFA in painting from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Currently, he lives in Newark, DE where he earned a MFA in sculpture from the University of Delaware back in 2011. He does not take many things seriously except for his studio practice and even then it is filled with things that he finds humorous within humanities’ current condition. Throughout his career as an artist, Cox has come to think of himself as a janky roboticist, building machines that are the opposite calling of one who would roboticize. The conventional idea is that machines are productive and efficient in order to take the place of a human. Pairing grandiose with pathetic, his focus is challenging this notion by making the machines closer to what he sees as humans: anxious, quirky, idiosyncratic, and often unproductive. Based on the operation of his current creative practice, he uses his sense of humor to turn his thoughts of everyday happenings into a comedic performance about these human characteristics.