Allan McCollum

Corner Space

[Please scroll down for German version / Für Deutsch bitte scrollen Sie nach unten]

From his image archive An Ongoing Collection of Screengrabs with Reassuring Subtitles with currently 1.200 screenshots from American TV series and movies, Allan McCollum has chosen 400 motifs with subtitles such as “It will be ok” or “Don’t worry, Babe” to be printed on canvas, each framed in a black wooden frame and measuring 10.4 x 17.2 x 1.6 in (26.3 x 43.8 x 4 cm). This group of works is especially designed for Galerie Thomas Schulte to be offered to friends, supporters and interested clients as a sign of consolation and to financially help two highly acclaimed art institutions, the ICA Miami and C/O Berlin, to cope in these difficult times.

Allan McCollum began this project in 2015 as a visual essay about the meaning of closeness and comfort in our society. He wants it to serve as a reminder that it is through the telling and sharing of stories that we perceive the world. It is also a critique of Hollywood and populist rhetoric which both instrumentalize our emotions by promoting the narrative of a hero coming to the rescue, while in reality we depend on being part of a community of family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. All of the screen shots from films and movies amassed by McCollum depict people in situations of great uncertainty and distress being comforted with words of support that spell out in the subtitles. But while anxiety and worry are feelings that are individually and subjectively felt and experienced by all of us, the encouraging phrases on the screen through endless repetition soon become somewhat meaningless.

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Aus seinem Bildarchiv An Ongoing Collection of Screengrabs with Reassuring Subtitles (dt. eine fortlaufende Sammlung von Screenshots mit tröstenden Untertiteln) mit mittlerweile mehr als 1.200 Screenshots aus amerikanischen Fernsehserien und Filmen mit Bildunterschriften wie „It will be ok“ und „Don’t worry, Babe“ hat Allan McCollum 400 Motive ausgewählt für ein besonderes Charity Projekt in Zusammenarbeit mit der Galerie Thomas Schulte. McCollum begann das Sammeln der Screenshots 2015 als eine Art von visuellem Essay über die Bedeutung von Nähe und Trost in unserer Gesellschaft.