The Mobile Homestead

09/14/2020

Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) and the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts are currently co-presenting At Home with Mike Kelley, a series of online screenings and conversations about the artist's moving-image work. From this Thursday, September 10th through Wednesday September 23rd, they will present Mike Kelley's three videos documenting the journey of his Mobile Homestead public artwork from the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) to his childhood neighborhood and back again.

Please enjoy this panel discussion featuring curator Carla Acevedo-Yates, architectural historian Lee Azus, artists Matthew Angelo Harrison and Cary Loren, and director of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art Laura Sillars, who worked as a producer on the Mobile Homestead videos.

For more content visit https://www.eai.org

https://vimeo.com/457508360

Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) and the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts are pleased to co-present At Home with Mike Kelley, a series of online screenings and…

09/08/2020

Recommended viewing: Kelley speaks about work "Day is Done" with Art21.

Episode #104: Mike Kelley reveals how photographs from yearbooks and newspapers in Detroit served as the inspiration behind the performative project "Day Is ...

09/01/2020

In 2018, hypebeast label Supreme used Mike Kelley’s art work to create “wearable art.” Ahh… Youth!, More Love Hours than Can Ever Be Repaid, and Reconstructed History are all featured on pieces of clothing. Although he critiqued the hype of popular culture, Kelley resonates with the label’s millennial and Gen-Z supporters as his work deals with class, American culture, and rebellion.
Images: Supreme x Mike Kelley Line

08/26/2020

Reconstructed History (1989) is a collection of images from history textbooks. Fueled by “childish resentment,” Kelley defaced these images with his drawings. “These pictures leave behind historical specificity to convey general American values. The reality of these past events is a confused and gruesome one anyway. One better off buried. Murder, war, the struggle for power, the desire for wealth, and the disruption of social order: all passions fired by the flesh, of no consequence today when peace and satisfaction are the rule. The past is where these things belong -- adored but not emulated” (Kelley, Reconstructed History).

08/17/2020

Artwork Highlight: Memory Ware Flat #12
Kelley’s Memory Ware series consists of everyday objects covered with small found objects. Memory Ware Flat #12 (2001) is one of 60 Memory Ware flats that Kelley created from 2000-2010. Much like More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid, Memory Ware Flat #12 uses orphaned trinkets to explore the emotional attachment people have to inanimate objects and to critique what society deems as “high” art.

To read more visit:

View auction details, art exhibitions and online catalogues; bid, buy and collect contemporary, impressionist or modern art, old masters, jewellery, wine, watches, prints, rugs and books at sotheby's auction house

08/11/2020

Artwork Highlight: Educational Complex
Educational Complex (1995) is an architectural model of Kelley's childhood home and every school he attended throughout his lifetime, though much has been omitted due to lack of memory. The omission of these structural aspects is apparent as the buildings are only a small part of their original forms, driving the conversation towards the causes for mass memory loss. Through this work, Kelley explores Repressed Memory Syndrome, in which traumatic events are stored in the unconscious and only brought up later through therapy.
To listen to Mike Kelley speak about this work: https://whitney.org/media/1330

08/04/2020

Artwork Highlight: More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid
More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid (1987) is the first work of Kelley’s to be constructed from abandoned stuffed animals. The work dwells on the idea of waste, whether it be wasted objects, wasted time, or wasted love. The work is currently on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City with a piece titled The Wages of Sin, an alter filled with melted candles.

Image: More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid and The Wages of Sin at the Whitney Museum of American Art

07/28/2020

Artwork Highlight: The Banana Man
Kelley’s Banana Man was created to be a part of his first solo video work, The Banana Man (1983). The Banana Man is based on Captain Kangaroo, a character from the children’s show Captain Kangaroo. Kelley had never actually seen the show, but relied on his friend’s accounts of the character. He created the Banana Man from a single characterization: Captain Kangaroo said “oooh” as he pulled long objects out of his pockets. The work examines if it is possible to understand someone or something’s character through few descriptors.

Image: Portrait of Mike Kelley as the Banana Man

07/21/2020

Did you know that underneath The Mobile Homestead is a maze-like basement? Kelley wanted to include a secluded underground space in the Homestead, which is only accessible to select artists and friends of Kelley through one point of entry. It seems enigmatic and somber compared to the public and light-filled main floor. The basement is described as “both claustrophobic and improbably vast” by the New York Times. To learn more about what is beneath the Homestead, here is the NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/t-magazine/art/mike-kelley-mobile-homestead.html

07/14/2020

Mike Kelley collaborated with the punk rock band Sonic Youth to create the cover for their album Dirty. The cover features an image from Kelley’s piece Ahh… Youth! which juxtaposes the innocence of childhood objects with mugshot-like photographs and Kelley’s older, greasier appearance. Kelley was a good friend of band member Kim Gordon, and worked with Sonic Youth on a performance art piece of his own titled, Plato’s Cave, Rothko’s Chapel, Lincoln’s Profile.

More information about Ahh… Youth!: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/contemporary-art-evening-sale-n09141/lot.13.html

07/07/2020

Destroy All Monsters (DAM) was a punk-rock band started by Mike Kelley and fellow band members Niagara, Jim Shaw, and Cary Loren. Named after a Japanese Godzilla movie, the band was formed in 1973 when they were students at the University of Michigan. During their first concert in Ann Arbor, they played for ten minutes and were promptly asked to leave, but they developed a cult following over the years, releasing music and a DAM magazine. Kelley left the band in 1976 to attend graduate school at CalArts, but DAM continued to recruit a number of new band members, notably Ron Ashton of The Stooges and Michael Davis of MC5. The band continued its career until 1985, and later, Kelley and the original band members reunited to perform sporadically.
For a timeline of DAM and to hear Jim Shaw speak about his experience of starting DAM with Kelley visit: https://mcachicago.org/Publications/Websites/West-By-Midwest/Research/Topics/Destroy-All-Monsters