Midterm

 

 Systems

The artist I was assigned is Allen McCollum. He is a contemporary American artist. He has spent 45 years designing and exploring ideas of mass production illustrating a personal meaning behind all of his work. The ideas Allen shows is his interest in creating different kinds of shapes, he likes to explore many different types of symbols and giving them a meaning. His exhibitions mostly consist of mass quantities. As you can see in the images provided above, Allen creates what almost seems like illusions. A piece of art that you can't seem to look away from only because there is just so much to be seen and it would almost be impossible to ignore. There is a quote I found so appealing in his interview and it sounds something like this, “Some people would want to run out of the room when there’s too many things to look at, other people would stand there in awe.” I feel he couldn't have summed up the first initial impression any better than that. While viewing his interview I must admit I wasn't in favor of him as an artist until I decided to research and dig up more information of his artwork. These two images I found are so fascinating, I became really impressed that one person can put in so much effort to create millions of symbols and carry so much meaning behind them. His ideas become very vivid while viewing his exhibitions. He uses a lot of simple shapes, some complex shapes and also combines shapes to create many millions of other shapes. An important issue Allen discusses while he designs a project is that he always keeps in mind, is this something I can show someone else how to do. I feel this thought was influenced by his uncle who was also an artist and who was a big influence in his life. Another idea Allen considers or keeps in mind is does this piece make a good story. Something that viewers think about and wonder how this came to be. It gives something a purpose, to not only appreciate with the eye but to also dissect it and think about what it is that you're looking at. That in my opinion already makes him a successful artist. Most of his artwork is hand drawn using pencil. He also uses stencils, templates and photocopies to create mass productions of his work. In his interview Allen stated that what triggered his work was how people used symbols to represent their families. He used the example of how we Americans view the American flag and automatically we know we belong together as one, that is our symbol of meaning. This video did change my view on how artist work very differently then expected, to create such large quantities of millions of different shapes takes so much devotion and dedication. For one person to create and adjust all of these shapes in a way that the viewer will and can understand his story is amazing.