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Mike Kelley's memory pieces --keepsakes embedded onto objects and canvases .
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Mike Kelley was an American artist, born in Michigan, based in Los Angeles. He made art of found objects, textile banners, drawings, assemblage, collage, performance and video. He was a member of the 1970s Detroit based art rock band “Destroy All Monsters”, graduate of Cal Arts. He committed suicide in 2012 in South Pasadena.
ABOUT THE BOOK: Memory Ware = North American folk art in which every day utilitarian objects, are embedded with small objects including shells, beads, and buttons. Kelley appropriated this folk tradition using American trash culture.
ABOUT AUTHORS: Ralph Rugoff is Director of the Hayward Gallery in London. He was previously Director of the California College of the Arts (CCA) Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. John Welchman edited the Mike Kelley essay included. He is Professor at UC San Diego.
QUOTE:"one of the most influential American artists of the past quarter century and a pungent commentator on American class, popular culture and youthful rebellion” Holland Cotter, The New York Times
Over the course of his four-decade career, Mike Kelley (1954–2012) critically questioned aesthetic conventions and examined all forms of culture. The approximately 100 Memory Ware and associated works were made during the first decade of the 21st century; all are reproduced in this catalog. Named for a genre of North American folk art in which everyday utilitarian objects such as vases are coated with a claylike substance and then embedded with small objects including shells, beads and buttons, Kelley’s Memory Ware series consists both of wall-hung works (known as Memory Ware Flats) and freestanding pieces. The artist’s appropriation of this folk tradition eliminates recognizable underlying objects and expands the original method to include a wider variety of keepsakes. The Memory Ware sculptures, by contrast, juxtapose dense clusters of found objects with minimally or undecorated areas and reintroduce an overall structure.
Featured image is reproduce from 'Mike Kelley: Memory Ware.'
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FORMAT: Hbk, 9.75 x 12.5 in. / 250 pgs / 144 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $65.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $87 ISBN: 9783952446140 PUBLISHER: Hauser & Wirth Publishers AVAILABLE: 4/25/2017 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Hauser & Wirth Publishers. Text by Ralph Rugoff, Mike Kelley.
Over the course of his four-decade career, Mike Kelley (1954–2012) critically questioned aesthetic conventions and examined all forms of culture. The approximately 100 Memory Ware and associated works were made during the first decade of the 21st century; all are reproduced in this catalog. Named for a genre of North American folk art in which everyday utilitarian objects such as vases are coated with a claylike substance and then embedded with small objects including shells, beads and buttons, Kelley’s Memory Ware series consists both of wall-hung works (known as Memory Ware Flats) and freestanding pieces. The artist’s appropriation of this folk tradition eliminates recognizable underlying objects and expands the original method to include a wider variety of keepsakes. The Memory Ware sculptures, by contrast, juxtapose dense clusters of found objects with minimally or undecorated areas and reintroduce an overall structure.
