Mike Kelley

Mike Kelley (1954 – 2012) was an American artist. His work involved found objects, textile banners, drawings, assemblage, collage, performance and video. He often worked collaboratively and had produced projects with artists Paul McCarthy, Tony Oursler and John Miller.

g39 will be screening Mike Kelley's work, Mobile Homestead.

Mobile Homestead is a life-sized replica of the suburban home in which he grew up. The new ‘homestead’ has been relocated to the city centre, outside the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), in a reversal of the ‘white flight’ to the suburbs that followed the 1967 Detroit riots. Kelley envisioned the ground floor of the house as a site for community activities, while a labyrinthine basement would provide space for what he described as ‘private rites of an aesthetic nature’.

The videos document the homestead’s journey from downtown Detroit to ‘the mother ship’, the Kelleys’ former home in Westland, and back again. This expedition is presented alongside interviews with an array of local residents, including bikers, church officials, strippers, social workers, heroin addicts and representatives of the automobile industry to which the Motor City owes its name.

Mobile Homestead is a trilogy of films that is part of The Artangel Collection
and are presented in collaboration with the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.


The artist was in the following exhibition:
S Mark Gubb – Revelations: The Poison of Free Thought, Prt II
Mike Kelley – Mobile Homestead

Links :
http://mikekelley.com/