#115: Ruby McCrae
We’re joined by Cape Town-based multimedia contemporary artist, Ruby McCrae, who tells us more about RXKNephew & Chicago drill music, Kamva Matuis, nipples as accessories, and more!
Ruby McCrae is a multimedia contemporary artist living and making in central Cape Town. Having (briefly) studied and dropped out at Michaelis school of fine art, McCrae is toiling away at the Cape Town Creative academy to hopefully receive her degree in contemporary art at the end of 2026. Alas her making does not begin and end with tertiary activities, the artist has been making since her conception, often being said to have been painting in the womb. Ruby is concerned with the economy of the body and commodification of its parts, the spectacle, voyeurism and digital perversion. The artist investigates the absurdity of the contemporary, often existentially spiralling at the tightly bound nature of connection and impossibility of privacy and anonymity today. McCrae is concerned with the relations of spaces, where we insert/remove ourselves, what that says about us and how these spaces inform our day to day or project specific ideals onto those in them.
We welcome Ruby to The FRM Newsletter to share what she’s been into recently!
🎧🥷 Music
Westside Gunn: pray for paris & flygod on top
Amy winehouse: Frank
Chicago drill: Chief keef, Fredo, king Von
RXK nephew: the real lil Reese, 14 minutes diss track on everything and everyone, #1 listened to song last year my Bible
Portishead (thank u mars)
Zeppelin
Massive attack
Vanessa daou
Neil young
Bahamadia
Air
Sneaker pimps
Thurber corporation
Gucci mane
My music directly influenced what I’m making, and how my works come out. If I’m working on something that requires energy or resilience I’ll keep it vibrant, where as something like painting that requires a flow state will usually lead to something with more ambience.
🎙 Podcasts
The history of rome by mike Duncan, I’m on episode 172, highly highly recommend, we’re all so interconnected, people will always be people.
Death of an artist!
Clearpilled with sigh swoon
History of Egypt- I was one of the top listeners last year and got that special little video from the guy in charge, Dominic perry.
👢👩⚖️ Laws on fashion
Avid outfit repeater
Whatever my roomate has recently purchased
Paint Attire
Utilitarian wear always, studio will destroy everything you love, lean into it, no jeans are yours they belong to the paint :0
Sporty flats
Waitress apron
Comfy, cotton, cunt
Nipples as accessories
Doc martens
Sandy bikini bottoms
Thrifting/swapping/yaga/marketplace
Dress for the job you want: struggling artist ??? (Maybe I need tabis)
Prayer beads
Lace and mesh, nothing new, live through your clothing’s other lives
🎨 Art
Never stop making even when it sucks, especially when it’s a bit humiliating
We are so lucky to be alive and to make to express that existence, to make art is to be human, the grand connector
My art is the most important thing in my life, always will be, it’s who I am and will be, it feels like the greatest honour that could have ever been bestowed upon me
Mindful making but also mindless making
Fave local artists rn:
All time faves:
Ibrihaim el salahi
Sophia Giovanitti
Ernst kirchner
Otto Mueller
🪩📲 Inspirations
Nightlife, digital culture, economy of care & the body, sociographs/making culture and connections
📕 Books!
Top 10 books ever:
Brave new world- Aldous Huxley (especially potent at the moment)
The plague- Albert Camus
Crime and punishment & notes from the underground- dostoyevsky
The spectacle- guy de bord
The bell jar (lol) Sylvia Plath
The trial- Kafka
Zami: a new spelling of my name- Audre lorde
A clockwork orange- Anthony Burgess
Females- Andrea long Chu
On the road- Kerouac (I used to dislike the beats but there’s something so charming about the pace of their writing)
🏊♀️🍷 Lifestyle
Make something everyday, swim in the ocean as much as possible, coffee & pastries from fave cafe lions bread, waitress, call your family, fall over the same hurdle again and again, remind myself how lucky I am to be alive, drink some wine, hug my friends, make my bed, smile at everyone, foster connection at all costs! We are so lucky to be alive, to make art, wear, read, listen and look at art, hug and kiss, swim, walk shop, connect, stay grounded and grateful!