Minor Histories: Statements, Conversations, Proposals

The second volume of writings by Los Angeles artist Mike Kelley, focusing on his own work.

What John C. Welchman calls the blazing network of focused conflations from which Mike Kelley's styles are generated is on display in all its diversity in this second volume of the artist's writings. The first volume, Foul Perfection, contained thematic essays and writings about other artists; this collection concentrates on Kelley's own work, ranging from texts in voices that grew out of scripts for performance pieces to expository critical and autobiographical writings.Minor Histories organizes Kelley's writings into five sections. Statements consists of twenty pieces produced between 1984 and 2002 (most of which were written to accompany exhibitions), including Ajax, which draws on Homer, Colgate- Palmolive, and Longinus to present its eponymous hero; Some Aesthetic High Points, an exercise in autobiography that counters the standard artist bio included in catalogs and press releases; and a sequence of creative writings that use mass cultural tropes in concert with high art mannerisms--approximating in prose the visual styles that characterize Kelley's artwork. Video Statements and Proposals are introductions to videos made by Kelley and other artists, including Paul McCarthy and Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose. Image-Texts offers writings that accompany or are part of artworks and installations. This section includes A Stopgap Measure, Kelley's zestful millennial essay in social satire, and Meet John Doe, a collage of appropriated texts. Architecture features an discussion of Kelley's Educational Complex (1995) and an interview in which he reflects on the role of architecture in his work. Finally, Ufology considers the aesthetics and sexuality of space as manifested by UFO sightings and abduction scenarios.

Author: Mike Kelley
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 02/06/2004
Pages: 458
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 2.10lbs
Size: 8.82h x 7.92w x 1.17d
ISBN13: 9780262611985
ISBN10: 0262611988
BISAC Categories:
- Art | Criticism & Theory
- Art | Individual Artists | General
- Art | History | Contemporary (1945- )

About the Author
Mike Kelley is a Los Angeles-based artist, noise musician, and writer. He is a member of the graduate faculty in the M.F.A. program at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena.

John C. Welchman is Professor of Modern Art History in the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego. He is the editor of Minor Histories: Statements, Conversations, Proposals, a collection of writings by the artist Mike Kelley (MIT Press).