Allan McCollum

American artist Allan McCollum creates sculptures which unpick societal contradictions. Fascinated by the pedestalling of certain objects due to their antiquity or artisanal qualities and the degradation of mass-produced ‘low’ goods, he applies plaster, rubber, paint, and cement to emulate items such as framed paintings, fossils, household appliances or antiques. Continually traversing and blurring the distinction between artefacts and automotive objects, his works reveal the embedded nature of associations and the ripples these judgements continue to permeate throughout society. “When I first decided to be an artist, I was interested in exploring self-referential angles on how our culture defines a ‘painting,’” he reflected. “I quickly realized that a painting is ultimately defined by its context. And all contexts are within other contexts within other contexts, so I'm always drawn into an ever-expanding idea of contexts.” Beginning his work in the 1970s, his explorations of labour, authorship and social hierarchies remain especially pertinent today in our contemporary era of intense globalisation and the mass circulation of images via social media.