Apart from the terror of the ultimate null set, McCollum is simultaneously presenting a picture of the sublime. He takes one step back from the image imbued with the collaring specificity of content, and places himself in a prior stage of production—the primary act of creation. The choking necktie of packaged meaning is stripped off, giving an airing to the thing in itself, a phlebotomy of esthetics. Artmaking is not the image of art imitating nature, but thc act of individual creation mimicking the originary act of creation. As McCollum was recently quoted as saying: "Modern industrial production has always been more than just a making of things; it has always also been a highly orchestrated expression, a sort of epic dramatization of a wish, a wish we all share, a wish that we might be able to be as productive as nature."

McCollum's effort constitutes a foray into the subconscious urge to make, which in its generality is quite separate from the making of any particular object. Locked in a stasis of self-replication, mimetic in its very structure, his work images the urge itself. The emphasis has been shifted to the activity and away from the product. Of course, the delightful irony is that this shift merely results in more products; true to life, the machine goes on.

--Dena Shottenkirk
ARTFORUM