Allan McCollum: "Shapes Copper Cookie Cutters" | Art21 "Exclusive"

Episode #089: Larry Little, co-founder of Aunt Holly's Copper Cookie Cutters with his wife Holly, describes his experiences working with artist Allan McCollum on the "Shapes from Maine" (2009) exhibition at Friedrich Petzel Gallery in New York. Little describes the origins of his home business in Trescott, Maine, the process he developed for making cookie cutters by hand, and his working relationship with McCollum.

Applying strategies of mass production to hand-made objects, Allan McCollum's labor-intensive practice questions the intrinsic value of the unique work of art. McCollum's installations—fields of vast numbers of small-scale works, systematically arranged—are the product of many tiny gestures, built up over time. Viewing his work often produces a sublime effect as one slowly realizes that the dizzying array of thousands of identical-looking shapes is, in fact, comprised of subtly different, distinct things. Engaging assistants, scientists, and local craftspeople in his process, McCollum embraces a collaborative and democratic form of creativity.

Learn more about Allan McCollum: http://www.art21.org/artists/allan-mccollum

VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Dowling. Camera: Richard Kane & Joel Shapiro. Sound: Kenny Weinberg. Editor: Lizzie Donahue & Paulo Padilha. Artwork Courtesy: Allan McCollum. Thanks: Holly & Larry Little.

The first e-mail that I got from Allan McCollum, stating that he was an artist in New York City,

I really didn't know who he was.

And then after we got into the process a little deeper,

where he ordered some custom cutters for a test,

Oh, that's an interesting shape.

I went on his website and I found that he was little more involved in the art world,

Than I had imagined to start with.

Holly, who the company is named after,

She had a collection of tin cookie cutters.

Then, she decided she really would rather have copper, a which is a lot nicer.

She went to a local coppersmith, they were very expensive.

And she decided that I should attempt to make her some copper cookie cutters,

And save her some money, so I investigated for a couple of weeks,

Procedures, how I might be able to do it, played around with a few things,

And we've been progressing on, ever since.

One thing about copper, it's pretty pliable.

You make mistake or have a problem, you can usually straighten it up pretty easily.

Just keep following the pattern of the tags.

I don't know if this process is the standard of the industry or not.

Just a process I came up with, and started doing, and it's the way we've always done it.

I've never checked on the internet to see if it's the right way or the wrong way.

Seems to work for us.

Make a sweeping turn.

And at this point, we're actually gonna lift it up and forget that for right now.

This is an automatic center punch, I'm locating the spots where I intend to put my rivets.

[Tapping noise]

And then we take the completed shape and we put it in the polishing machine.

Which is a vibratory polisher, and we use walnut shell media.

And the walnut shell media, it stays in there for three hours, and it becomes really bright and shiny.

[Vibrating noise]

The final procedure is to put it in an air-tight container and sealing it.

And we have an identification tag saying it's for Allan McCollum's "Shapes Project,"

And telling people not to touch it. [Laughs]

When he puts the pieces together, it becomes a huge work of art.

It's gonna be in the Chelsea district of Manhattan.

I mean, I'd like to see the show of course, but I don't think I can make that trip.

Oh, you guys are gonna tape it, aren't you? [Laughs]

And we'll have our tape.