ART-PRESENTATION: Mike Kelley-Framed and Frame

Mike Kelley, Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction "Chinatown Wishing Well" built by Mike Kelley after "Miniature Reproduction 'Seven Star Cavern', Built by Prof. H.K. Lu") ("Frame" section), 1999, Installation view, ‘Mike Kelley’ at The Museum of Contemporary Art-Los Angeles CA, 2014, Art © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, All Rights Reserved / Licensed by VAGA-New York, Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth, Rennie Collection-Vancouver , Photo: Brian ForrestMike Kelley’s work ranges from highly symbolic and ritualistic performance pieces to arrangements of stuffed-animal sculptures, to wall-size drawings, to multi-room installations that restage institutional environments to extended collaborations with artists such as Paul McCarthy and Tony. His work questions the legitimacy of “normative” values and systems of authority, and attacks the sanctity of cultural attitudes toward family, religion, sexuality, art history, and education.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Hauser & Wirth Gallery Archive

The installation “Framed and Frame (Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction “Chinatown Wishing Well” Built by Mike Kelley after “Minature Reproduction ‘Seven Star Cavern’ Built by Prof. H.K.Lu)”, (1999) is on presentation at Hauser & Wirth London. Mike Kelley was fascinated by Middle America’s many diverse and alternative subcultures, and through his work he became both a participant in and commentator on their cultural conventions and constructions. Taking Los Angeles’ marginalised Chinese-American community as its inspiration, the installation explores the conceptual space between real and imagined places. Two photographic diptychs: “Color and Form” (1999) and “Pre and Post (diptych)” (1999-00), which Kelley viewed as important accompaniments to the installation, are also on display. The installation recreates a local landmark in the Chinatown of downtown LA and consists of two separate sculptures divided by a wall. “Framed” is a ‘wishing well’ in the form of a biomorphic, concrete, grotto-like landscape, covered with spots of spray-painted colour and cheap religious statuary and tossed coins on its ledges and niches. A secret crawlspace complete with a mattress, candles and condoms is revealed at the rear of the well. The adjacent “Frame” is a 2.8 x 4.5 meters enclosure comprised of a cyclone fence, faux brick walls and barbed wire, decorated to resemble a Chinese gate. In the installation Kelley’s replica of the original “Seven Star Cavern” and surrounding Chinese gate are displayed side by side as two distinct elements. By removing the framing device of the gate, the artist raises questions related to the frame as a mechanism for instilling objects with meaning. Kelley linked the gate to the frame of a painting, which he said, “Focuses the attention of the viewer on the discrete forms within the painting”. The wishing well, considered separately from its frame “Would appear to the casual viewer as little more than a heap of scrap cement”, stripped of its enclosure, the monument is exposed to numerous interpretive projections.

Info: Hauser & Wirth Gallery, 23 Savile Row, London, Duration: 23/9-19/11/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.hauserwirth.com

Mike Kelley, Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction "Chinatown Wishing Well" built by Mike Kelley after "Miniature Reproduction 'Seven Star Cavern', Built by Prof. H.K. Lu"), Installation view, © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, All Rights Reserved / Licensed by VAGA-New York, Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth, Rennie Collection-Vancouver
Mike Kelley, Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction “Chinatown Wishing Well” built by Mike Kelley after “Miniature Reproduction ‘Seven Star Cavern’, Built by Prof. H.K. Lu”), Installation view, © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, All Rights Reserved / Licensed by VAGA-New York, Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth, Rennie Collection-Vancouver

 

 

Mike Kelley, Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction "Chinatown Wishing Well" built by Mike Kelley after "Miniature Reproduction 'Seven Star Cavern', Built by Prof. H.K. Lu"), Installation view, © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, All Rights Reserved / Licensed by VAGA-New York, Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth, Rennie Collection-Vancouver
Mike Kelley, Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction “Chinatown Wishing Well” built by Mike Kelley after “Miniature Reproduction ‘Seven Star Cavern’, Built by Prof. H.K. Lu”), Installation view, © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, All Rights Reserved / Licensed by VAGA-New York, Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth, Rennie Collection-Vancouver

 

 

Mike Kelley, Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction "Chinatown Wishing Well" built by Mike Kelley after "Miniature Reproduction 'Seven Star Cavern', Built by Prof. H.K. Lu"), Installation view, © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, All Rights Reserved / Licensed by VAGA-New York, Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth, Rennie Collection-Vancouver
Mike Kelley, Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction “Chinatown Wishing Well” built by Mike Kelley after “Miniature Reproduction ‘Seven Star Cavern’, Built by Prof. H.K. Lu”), Installation view, © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, All Rights Reserved / Licensed by VAGA-New York, Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth, Rennie Collection-Vancouver

 

 

Mike Kelley, Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction "Chinatown Wishing Well" built by Mike Kelley after "Miniature Reproduction 'Seven Star Cavern', Built by Prof. H.K. Lu"), Installation view, © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, All Rights Reserved / Licensed by VAGA-New York, Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth, Rennie Collection-Vancouver
Mike Kelley, Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction “Chinatown Wishing Well” built by Mike Kelley after “Miniature Reproduction ‘Seven Star Cavern’, Built by Prof. H.K. Lu”), Installation view, © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, All Rights Reserved / Licensed by VAGA-New York, Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth, Rennie Collection-Vancouver

 

 

Mike Kelley, Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction "Chinatown Wishing Well" built by Mike Kelley after "Miniature Reproduction 'Seven Star Cavern', Built by Prof. H.K. Lu"), Installation view, © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, All Rights Reserved / Licensed by VAGA-New York, Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth, Rennie Collection-Vancouver
Mike Kelley, Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction “Chinatown Wishing Well” built by Mike Kelley after “Miniature Reproduction ‘Seven Star Cavern’, Built by Prof. H.K. Lu”), Installation view, © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, All Rights Reserved / Licensed by VAGA-New York, Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth, Rennie Collection-Vancouver