ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN
The Boston Globe
April 13, 2000

Allan McCollum
The Small World Drawings
At: Barbara Krakow Gallery
through April 26


Allan McCollum, The Small World Drawings, 2000. Pencil on rag paper.

By Cate McQuaid
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

Allan McCollum cites Dale Carnegie's book "How to Win Friends and Influence people" as an inspiration for his installation at the Barbara Krakow gallery. "The average man is more interested in his own name than in all the other names on earth put together," wrote Carnegie. So McCollum addresses his audience — Krakow's clientele and potential buyers of his art — by name.

The installation, "The Small World Drawings" features walls of names — 1,040 pairs of them, to be exact. Krakow handed over her mailing list to the artist and he plotted the list against itself and then with the others on the list. Each drawings consists of two first names with a plus sign between them.

The installation ratchets up the tension between individual and community, and between inclusion and exclusion. A visitor to the exhibition immediately scans the wall for his or her name, which may appear many times. The random pairings make for fictive connection. For Krakow, who knows everyone on the wall, those connections may prompt laughter, discomfort, or an impulse to matchmaking.

For someone not so plugged in to Krakow's clientele, the names and associations are more random. You might feel like the new kid at school, not sure who anybody is or who is friends with whom. Not seeing your own name up there, you might feel excluded. Imagine thinking yourself on Krakow's list, then not finding your name on her wall.

Addressing his audience so personally, McCollum shines a glaring light on our egotism and fragile sense of identity. The installation itself is visually mundane — a grid of names few would have the patience to read through. But its psychological content has a charge that will knock you off your balance.

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