Mike Kelley (video segment response)- Reanne

Post 3
"Non-representational abstracts, layered acrylic paint, plexiglas and other media creating a rhythmic dimensionality."

Title: Hive #2                                                           Title: Tectonic 12
Acrylic on Linen                                                         Painted Plexiglas, Mixed Media on Maple Art PanelArtist: Mike Kelley                                                   Artist: Mike Kelley
Taken from www.mikekelleyart.com                                 Taken from www.mikekelleyart.com


Title: The Thirteen Seasons (Heavy on the Winter) #1: The Birth of the New Year (1994)
Acrylic on Wood
Artist: Mike Kelley
Taken from www.pbs.org/art21

"While music belongs to time, painting belongs to space. My art is about space and divisions of space."


Mike Kelley makes videos (356 tapes- 1 for every day of the year)

Coming from Catholicism has given him a real interest in ritual; he believes that ritual is beautiful. Therefore, his main interest in art is actually trying to develop a materialist ritual. His videos are based on high school yearbooks because they are one of the few places where one can find pictures of those sorts of rituals.

He also says that all motivation is based on suppressed feelings. His stuffed animals artwork was his way of responding to 80s commodity culture. But his viewers thought it was about child abuse, his own abuse. But he embraces all responses and runs with it- so he went with that idea. So this series was about his abuse, as well as everyone’s abuse… this shared culture. His original trauma was his student training, so he created “13 seasons”, a series of ovals with no ends (example above), eternally occurring abuse, with the missing time (the part you can't remember). Art is his way of working through things; things start simple and get more complex.

Kelley says that art must be available to both the laziest viewer, on a simple level, as well as to the most sophisticated viewer. Kelley says that his art is beautiful because it produces humor and something he calls a sublime effect. His art has narrative elements but is also visually interesting. The writing of his videos comes from his own experiences. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between real past experiences and experiences seen/felt from films, plays, etc… Therefore, Kelley makes no distinction between these experiences; his art is a type of fiction in that way.