Pirelli HangarBicocca
Mike Kelley
Mike Kelley: Eternity is a Long Time
“Mike Kelley: Eternity is a Long Time” is an exhibition which examines the work of the late American artist Mike Kelley (Detroit, 1954 – Los Angeles, 2012) in an open path among installations, videos and sculptures mainly realized from 2000 to 2006: works of great intensity which perfectly represent the complex and visionary universe of one of the most influential figures in contemporary art.
Cultural aspects and autobiographical memories are so much a part of Mike Kelley’s art: his relationship with education, his links with modernist architecture, his view of the tradition of painting and of American literature and his approach to the vernacular and to popular culture, youthful initiatory rites and styles of musical subcultures.
“Mike Kelley: Eternity is a Long Time” (2013) by Mike KelleyPirelli HangarBicocca
The
installation “Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #1 (A Domestic
Scene)” and “Runway for Interactive DJ Event” – which were shown together at
Mike Kelley’s first solo exhibition in Italy, at the Galleria Emi Fontana in
Milan in 2000 – constitute a fundamental turning point in Mike Kelley’s
research and the dawn of what was to be his most prolific creative period.
“Mike Kelley: Eternity is a Long Time” (2013) by Mike KelleyPirelli HangarBicocca
Another key installation is the “John Glenn Memorial Detroit River Reclamation Project (Including the Local Culture Pictorial Guide, 1968-1972, Wayne/Westland Eagle)” of 2001, which takes inspiration from a monument to the astronaut John Glenn, after whom the high school that Mike Kelley attended was named. The fragments of colored ceramic and glass which cover the sculpture were picked up by Kelley himself in the river in Detroit.
“Mike Kelley: Eternity is a Long Time” (2013) by Mike KelleyPirelli HangarBicocca
John Glenn Memorial Detroit River Reclamation Project (Including the Local Culture Pictorial Guide, 1968-1972, Wayne/Westland Eagle) (2001) by Mike KelleyPirelli HangarBicocca
“Mike Kelley: Eternity is a Long Time” (2013) by Mike KelleyPirelli HangarBicocca
Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions #6, 7 (Woods Group) (2004-2005) by Mike KelleyPirelli HangarBicocca
Rose Hobart II (2013) by Mike KelleyPirelli HangarBicocca
“Mike Kelley: Eternity is a Long Time” (2013) by Mike KelleyPirelli HangarBicocca
Profondeurs Vertes (2006) by Mike KelleyPirelli HangarBicocca
The
project is given an unmistakable touch by Emi Fontana — an Italian curator who
lives in Los Angeles and worked closely with Mike Kelley during the last
fifteen years of his life — and by Andrea Lissoni’s unique experience in
devising unconventional exhibition formats at Pirelli HangarBicocca.
Pirelli HangarBicocca and the curators would like to acknowledge the generosity of the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts and the numerous lenders who have made the exhibition, “Mike Kelley: Eternity is a Long Time”, possible.
