Louise Lawler and Allan McCollum: Fixed Intervals (online only)

In 1992, Brooke Alexander Editions published Fixed Intervals, a project of 20 brass objects by Louise Lawler and Allan McCollum. Sadly, over the course of the last few years, we have lost both Brooke Alexander and Ted Bonin, both integral to Fixed Intervals.

Over three years and twenty exhibitions, Krakow Witkin Gallery has “activated” all 20 brass objects by following the artists’ instructions and periodically installing a Fixed Interval into an exhibition for a short period of time. The below presentation is the documentation of this multi-year activity and has been done in honor of Brooke and Ted, and in the firm belief of the power of the work of Louise Lawler and Allan McCollum.

“We are pleased to present something for sale in the gallery that may be used.”

A Brief History of the Fixed Intervals project written by Louise Lawler and Allan McCollum:
“In 1988, the two of us were invited to exhibit our works together in the same rooms, at Le Consortium, in Dijon, France, although we had worked together previously to produce various art objects in collaboration, although we had shown our artworks together frequently in “group shows,” we had never actually tried to show our “own” work together, just the two of us, since we were a little nervous about this, a little competitive, we wondered if it might not feel better to separate our works with some kind of a spacer, or placeholder, something that might define a boundary, make a connection, suggest a pause, reconcile a difference, smooth over a contradiction, draw a parallel, close a gap, create a segue, establish a relationship, some small device to take the place of a lengthy explanation, or some sort of memorial to stand in for the non-existing transitional artworks that might otherwise have functioned to fill in the discomforting gaps between our occasionally incompatible ideas since one of us (Louise) had used an enlarged ampersand (&) in the past to place between a pair of other artists’ works in a group show context since one of us (Allan) had produced many objects in the past to take the place of artworks, we looked upon the little graphic symbols known as DINGBATS to help us solve our dilemma, as they seemed to work so well at performing such similar functions in books, and since they already existed in such plentiful supply, we created the Fixed Intervals to use in our exhibit.

We hope the Fixed Intervals can continue to serve as memorials to all the possible artworks that might have been created but were never made because they would have resembled another artist’s work too closely.”

Establishing Fixed Intervals:
•  If works are similar a Fixed Interval may be placed between
• If works are different a Fixed Interval may be placed between
• Two Fixed Intervals are not placed without works between
• If a work is isolated a Fixed Interval may be placed before or after
• If a work is absent a Fixed Interval may take its place
• A Fixed Interval paired with its reverse may be a fixed interval
• A Fixed Interval is not a work in itself

LOUISE LAWLER and ALLAN McCOLLUM
FIXED INTERVALS, 1988-1992
20 brass objects (10 unique shapes in both directions)
Edition of 25 with 6 Artist Proofs, each edition is available in 4 sets of 5 objects.
Not all objects need be shown. Intended for use as described. Orientation not fixed.