Mike Kelley: Foul Perfection: Essays and Criticism / Minor Histories: Statements, Conversations, Proposals (2003-2004)

Collected writings Los Angeles artist Mike Kelley. The first volume contains his critical writings and commentary, the latter focuses on his own work.

“The work of artist Mike Kelley (1954-2012) embraced performance, installation, drawing, painting, video, and sculpture. Drawing distinctively on high art and vernacular traditions, including historical research, popular culture, and psychology, Kelley came to prominence in the 1980s with a series of sculptures composed of craft materials. His more recent work offered dialogues with architecture and with repressed memory syndrome, and a sustained inquiry into his own aesthetic and social history. The subjects on which Kelley wrote are as varied as his artistic media. They include the work of fellow artists, sound, caricature, the uncanny, UFOlogy, and gender-bending.

While the first volume, Foul Perfection, contains thematic essays and writings about other artists; the second 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.”

Edited by John C. Welchman
Publisher MIT Press, 2003 and 2004
Writing Art series
ISBN 9780262112703, 0262112701 (1), 9780262112772, 0262112779 (2)
xx+238 and xxv+431 pages

Publisher (1)
Publisher (2)
WorldCat (1)
WorldCat (1)

Volume 1
Volume 2

Mike Kelley: Plato’s Cave, Rothko’s Chapel, Lincoln’s Profile (1986)

Publisher New City Editions, Venice, CA, and Artists Space, New York, 1986
98 pages

Review: Artforum (1987).
Commentary: Jori Finkel (LAMA, 2014).

Exhibition (Metro Pictures, New York, 1986)
WorldCat

PDF (19 MB)
MP3 (Performed live with Sonic Youth, Molly Cleator and Adam Rudolf at Artists Space, New York, 5 December 1986. Recorded by Carole Parkinson. 38 min, via UbuWeb)

The Art of Participation: 1950 to Now (2008)

“This volume explores the rich and varied history of participatory art, from early happenings and performances to more recent practices demanding audience interaction. As browsing, sharing, collecting, and producing increasingly permeate every aspect of society, this project reveals the ways in which artists and viewers have approached the creation of open works of art. Featured artists include Abramović/Ulay, Vito Acconci, Joseph Beuys, John Cage, Janet Cardiff, Lygia Clark, Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, Dan Graham, Hans Haacke, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Allan Kaprow, Antoni Muntadas, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, and Erwin Wurm.

Essays by Rudolf Frieling, Boris Groys, Robert Atkins, and Lev Manovich identify seminal moments in participatory practice from the 1950s to the present day and are accompanied by color illustrations, including documentation of significant projects by major figures such as Hélio Oiticica, Joan Jonas, Gordon Matta-Clark, Komar & Melamid, and Gabriel Orozco.”

With an Introduction by Rudolf Frieling
Publisher San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, and Thames & Hudson, New York, 2008
ISBN 9780500238585, 0500238588
212 pages

Reviews: Terri Cohn (CAA Reviews, 2009), Art Practical (2009).

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (11 MB)