YOUR FATE – A COLLABORATIVE PROJECT: GROUP SHOW

As part of this year’s Gallery Weekend Berlin, Galerie Thomas Schulte presents an exhibition of Allan McCollum’s early series of paintings in its main space, alongside an interactive project created in collaboration with Matt Mullican in the gallery’s Corner Space. In the collaborative project Your Fate (2004), repetitive action and chance outcomes converge in the form of a fortune-telling dice game, which visitors can participate in during Gallery Weekend.

The aspects of repetition and chance converge in Your Fate — a fortune-telling dice game. Through the repetitive action of throwing dice, the game — which visitors can participate in during Gallery Weekend — offers players an opportunity to divine their future, or else to find answers to certain questions. A set of 25 dice — another series of squares — have been specially imprinted with a unique collection of symbols created by the artists. All 25 dice are to be thrown together onto a game table where the upfacing symbols can then be interpreted based on their position in relation to the thrower (represented by a blank red die).

The symbols that are imprinted on the dice — as black silhouettes against a white background — are largely based on generic signs and logos from everyday life. We might recognize, for example, generic stick figures that have appeared on everything from public restrooms to road signs. Or, what has now come to resemble the “share” icon that is found on certain smartphones — a square with an arrow pointing outward, which here takes on the meaning of “exit”. Other common symbols include a heart, a star, a lock, and a glass with a crack in it — the sign for “fragile”.

To help read these signs, Your Fate is accompanied by a manual with suggested interpretations — a system for addressing participants individually through symbols that can be applied universally. Ultimately, it is along this edge that McCollum’s works in the exhibition teeter: oscillating from individual to universal, specific to general, part to whole.

Text by Julianne Cordray