Walking into the Visual Art Center’s “The Modern Cowboy” exhibit, various types of art fill the room, including photography, paintings, thread work and artifacts such as used baseball bats and metal, that garner immediate glances. Encompassing all types of cowboys, the exhibit displays different representations of what it means to live in the South during times of ongoing development in major cities, specifically Austin. Before the exhibit leaves on March 8, The Daily Texan spoke with co-curators Anjali Krishna, an art history and English junior, and Mia Johnson, Plan II art history senior, about their process of laying out and handpicking the pieces to showcase the main theme of the ‘cowboy.’
The Daily Texan: Where did you get the inspiration for the exhibit?
Anjali Krishna: This show was kind of conceptualized because, as someone who’s new to Austin, I’ve always loved it. I think it was us asking the audience and people who lived in Austin to understand the changing nature of the city (and) to reflect on it through this motif of the cowboy, which I’ve always thought was so representative of Austin and Texas in general. … We have this responsibility to our city and the people who live in it to not only acknowledge that it moved forward but that there’s something lovely and rooted in its history as a southern place of cowboys who are rugged but also honorable.
DT: Can you guys touch on what the idea of old and new Austin mean for the exhibit specifically?
AK: You think, “What is this commercialization of this very important aspect of Texan culture and what does it mean for Austin in particular which is facing gentrification?” Old Austin is defined by this motif of a cowboy who is in particular a rugged, male white person. It’s very different now. The cowboy is anyone (who) represents the ideals that we hope we are exhibiting through the show, like honor, kindness (and) warmth of southern hospitality.
Mia Johnson: It’s definitely metaphorical. … You’ve got Rosita’s, the best food truck in Austin, and then you’re just bombarded with high-rise buildings and weird stuff that looks like it crept from downtown. You can’t knock change because it’s going to happen anyway, but I think this is a really interesting environment and history to work with to see that happening because it happens so instantly and visually that you can really capture it.
DT: What can you guys say about how the exhibition relates to today and things happening in Austin right now?
MJ: I think it’s one of Rosie’s photos, “When The Thunder Rolls In.” When I was talking to people during the opening about that one, they were like, “That looks like East Austin, that looks like whatever place (or) neighborhood where I’m from.” … Even though the focus is Austin, I think a lot of it creeps out to being the South, and then the Midwest and then everywhere in general because this fascination with Texas and the cowboy has always been around, and it just kind of increases sometimes, but I think that bleeds through to Austin and beyond, specifically with that (photo).