Allan McCollum
b. 1944, United States
Collection of Five Perfect Vehicles, 1986
Enamel on hydrocal, in five parts
Each 50 x 21 x 21 cm
Collection of Five Perfect Vehicles is part of Allan McCollum’s Perfect Vehicles series which began in 1985, where the same iconic sculptural form is continuously presented in slight colour variations. All sculptures in this series take on the same shape of a Chinese ginger jar, a household item in Chinese culture that has been extensively copied and reproduced for centuries. Yet, in this work, McCollum strips them of their practical use value as these particular jars have no opening. Instead, each sculpture is thickly painted in a different hue of commercially available acrylic latex paint evoking traditional Chinese colour schemes, prompting viewers to think of these jars in terms of what they represent rather than what they are. Thus, these sculptures celebrate the way we seek meaning in the objects around us, as we use them as vessels that give our ideas material form. In this way, McCollum shows that everyday items can turn into something of superior value over time.
Photo: Petzel Gallery
Allan McCollum (b. 1944) is an American artist whose works blur the boundaries between unique artefacts and mass production. Drawn to an “ever-expanding idea of contexts” (in his own words), McCollum has explored how objects attain cultural and personal value in a world that draws a line between handmade artworks and objects of mass production, the act of which brings forth various contradictions that McCollum brings to light. His manifold background from working in industrial kitchens to his experience as a theatre practitioner, as well as his interest in the Fluxus movement and the works of Sol LeWitt, have shaped his unique perspective on labour and art, underlying the ethos behind his mass-produced objects that remain individually unique. Solo retrospectives of Allan McCollum’s work have been mounted at ICA Miami (2020), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2015), Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva (2006), and the Serpentine Gallery, London (1990).
