Mike Kelley
October 13, 2013–February 2, 2014
MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Avenue
Long Island City, NY 11101
Sunday Sessions launches second season with extensive live program for Mike Kelley exhibition
MoMA PS1 presents Mike Kelley, the largest exhibition of the artist’s work to date and the first comprehensive survey since 1993. Regarded as one of the most influential artists of our time, Mike Kelley (1954–2012) produced a body of deeply innovative work mining American popular culture and both modernist and alternative traditions—which he set in relation to relentless self- and social examinations, both dark and delirious.
Accompanying the exhibition, MoMA PS1′s Sunday Sessions presents an extensive live program highlighting the importance of critical reflection, performance, and music in Kelley’s oeuvre. The program focuses on the artist’s relationship to music and humor, as well as live performance, and generates a dialogue about the influence of his work on future artistic practice. Participants include long-time collaborators of Kelley, plus scholars, musicians, and artists who were influenced by his work. With Mark Beasley, Blowfly, Chris Carter, Kim Gordon, Rachel Harrison, James Hoff, Branden W. Joseph, Jutta Koether, Jayson Musson, Anita Pace, William Pope.L, Jay Sanders, Joe Scanlan, Michael Smith, Elisabeth Sussman, Cosey Fanni Tutti, John Welchman and others.
For more information visit momaps1.org/sundaysessions.
Sunday Sessions presents Pansy Metal/Clovered Hoof by Mike Kelley and Anita Pace
Sunday, October 13, 1:30pm and 2:30pm, the VW Dome
Originally created in 1989 in collaboration between Kelley and Los Angeles-based choreographer Anita Pace, Pansy Metal/Clovered Hoof is restaged by Pace for the opening day. The dancers are clad in silk scarves designed by Kelley and perform on a fashion show-style ramp to Orgasmatron by British heavy metal band Motörhead.
Sunday Sessions and Performa present an afternoon on humor with Blowfly and Michael Smith
Sunday, November 24, 4pm, the VW Dome
Blowfly, The Original Dirty Rapper, was a favorite musical act of Mike Kelley, who enjoyed the obscene humor in the sexually explicit parodies of popular songs. Michael Smith, a friend and collaborator of Kelley, will present a performance featuring his personae, the deadpan everyman ‘Mike’ and his diapered counterpart ‘Baby Ikki’ who recently appeared in Kelley and Smith’s 2009 project A Voyage of Growth and Discovery.
Following the performances, guest curator Mark Beasley, the creator of Hennessy Youngman’s Art Thoughtz, Jayson Musson, and Michael Smith will engage in a conversation about humor in Mike Kelley’s work.
Sunday Sessions presents “Mike Kelley Looking Forward”
Sunday, December 15, 1pm, the VW Dome
Rather than looking at Kelley’s art retrospectively, this one-day conference, organized in collaboration with Princeton University, will present new ideas about the influence of his work going forward. With lectures by Elisabeth Sussman (The Whitney Museum of American Art), Stacy Wolf (Princeton University), John Welchman (The Mike Kelley Foundation). Artists Rachel Harrison, William Pope.L, and Joe Scanlan will comprise a panel discussion.
Sunday Sessions presents an afternoon of music with Branden W. Joseph and James Hoff, followed by X-TG (feat. Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti)
Sunday, January 5
Listening Session: Mike Kelley’s Music
1pm, the VW Dome
Music has played a central role in Mike Kelley’s work throughout his career, from the Detroit-based noise band Destroy All Monsters, founded while he was an undergraduate, through to his most recent large-scale multimedia productions. Artist and publisher James Hoff (Primary Information) and art historian Branden W. Joseph (Columbia University) will discuss and play selections (including unreleased material) from Kelley’s musical oeuvre.
X-TG (feat. Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti) Live Remix of Desertshore
4pm, the VW Dome
The music of Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, former members of the industrial music pioneers Throbbing Gristle, left an indelible mark on Kelley and his music with Destroy All Monsters. This is Carter Tutti’s first US presentation of Desertshore / The Final Report LP (2012).
Sunday Sessions presents Kim Gordon and Jutta Koether
4pm, the VW Dome
One of Mike Kelley’s first forays into popular culture was his album cover—a bedraggled stuffed orange toy—for the LP Dirty (1992) by Sonic Youth, who had previously provided the sound for one of his early New York performances, Plato’s Cave, Rothko’s Chapel, Lincoln’s Profile (1986). The singer of the band and longtime friend of Kelley’s, Kim Gordon, is joined by Jutta Koether, a visual artist, writer, and member of the artist band XXX Macarena. Having worked and performed together several times before, Gordon and Koether will produce a unique event for the occasion.
Sunday Sessions presents Early Performances: An Oral History with Jay Sanders
Date TBA
In conjunction with his group exhibition Rituals of Rented Island: Object Theater, Loft Performance, and the New Psychodrama—Manhattan, 1970–1980 at The Whitney Museum of American Art, curator Jay Sanders engages in a conversation with artists who participated in the downtown Manhattan scene with a particular focus on Kelley’s early performances, including Parasite Lily (1980), which was a point of departure for Sanders’ exhibition.
Credits
Sunday Sessions program is organized by Jenny Schlenzka, Associate Curator, with Mike Skinner, Producer, and Alex Sloane, Live Programs Coordinator.
The music and performance portion of the program is organized by guest curator Mark Beasley, with Jenny Schlenzka, Associate Curator, and Eliza Ryan, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1.
Mike Kelley is organized by the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
The exhibition is curated by Ann Goldstein, Director, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; in cooperation with the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts; and organized at MoMA PS1 by Connie Butler, formerly The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings at The Museum of Modern Art, now Chief Curator, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and Peter Eleey, Curator and Associate Director of Exhibitions and Programs, MoMA PS1. Curator of the first exhibition concept is Dr. Eva Meyer-Herman.
Sponsorship
Sunday Sessions and the VW Dome at MoMA PS1 are made possible by a partnership with Volkswagen of America.
Mike Kelley Looking Forward has been made possible with support from The Lewis Center for the Arts and The David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project Fund, Princeton University.
The performances by Michael Smith and Blowfly are co-presented by Sunday Sessions and Performa for Performa 13. Revisiting the two-day experimental music festival co-curated by Mike Kelley and Mark Beasley for Performa 09.
The presentation at MoMA PS1 is made possible by MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation. Major support is provided by The Jill and Peter Kraus Endowed Fund for Contemporary Exhibitions and by Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley. Additional funding is provided by the Rennie Collection and by The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art.
