Mike Kelley

by Kelley, Mike (ART); Levine, Cary

• ISBN13: 9781616237189
• ISBN10: 161623718X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-31
• Publisher: Skarstedt Fine Art

Summary

Mike Kelley's Arenasseries of the late 80s and early 90s mark a shift away from the artist's performance-oriented activity and towards a new sculptural dexterity, in which cultural resonance is elicited from an eerie reframing of everyday objects. First exhibited in 1990 at Metro Pictures, the Arenasare comprised of stuffed animals arranged around the edges of blankets (or occasionally posed isolate in their center). Ten or twenty such toys in such groupings might convey a cheery childhood picnic scenario, but Kelley rarely selects more than five or six, and places them carefully so that their cuddliness and their capacity to comfort is entirely canceled out. Instead, we encounter the toy as a commodity entity-a mass-manufactured product positioned to enter into play but far from inviting it. Skarstedt's exhibition of seven of the eleven Arenasis here recorded in superb installation shots and with critical commentary.