i-D: Post-punk, high art and social critique: the makings of Mike Kelley

Low culture has always had a love-hate relationship with those who live outside of it. Yet, in 2016 it feels like society is more interested in embracing the mundane than ever; after all, it was only last season we were taking style cues from Juicy Couture at the Vetements Spring 2017 show. While it’s hard to put a finger on where and when borrowing from low culture became a thing for high fashion houses, it’s emergence in the art world is clear. The 1989 Los Angeles art scene became a crucial period for many contemporary art practices by the likes of Paul McCarthy and Raymond Pettibon. Working alongside them was the late Mike Kelley (1954-2012) whose entrance onto the contemporary art scene was through counter-culture and his unique ability to lift material from mass culture and ‘pervert’.

Somewhat under-represented in Australia, Kelley’s practice explores sexuality, class, modernism and transcendence, which he casts in a bleak rawness and quasi-psychedelic sentiment. In effort to introduce the influential Irish/American artist to a new Australian audience, Neon Parc is hosting the most significant showing of his work since his inclusion in the 5th Sydney Biennial in 1984 in their Pansy Metal/Clovered Hoof exhibition; a series oversized silk banners, and seminal video works as well as a live program of musical performances inspired by Kelleys lifelong connection to the post-punk scene.

We sat down with the show’s curator and long-time fan, Geoff Newton, to talk about why Mike Kelleys confluence of post-punk, high art, and social critique reverberates through contemporary art practice today.

Tell us about the exhibition and your motives to bring it to Neon Parc?

Mike Kelley is one of those seminal artists of the 21st century that really sort of galvanised a generation. So a lot of his work to me is pretty influential on a number of West Coast LA artists, plus a number of international artists but there was just not a lot of his work shown outside Australia. The work that i’ve been showing is a set of ten silk screen banners from 1989 which are kind of at a formative part of Kelley’s development as an artist, not only in LA but internationally. The banners embody Mike Kelley’s sense of humour, his American/Irish heritage and it’s him trying to play around with what stands as an anarchic gesture or a gesture that is to do with symbolising authority or conformity. There are a lot of things in Kelley’s work which are unexpected but instantly familiar to people like soft toys or symbols or things to do with school, or religion.

What made Mike Kelley a defining artist of a generation?

Mike Kelley really came onto the scene at a time when punk and disco were really kind of dead and the music world was looking for something else in that sort of era of pre-grunge, post-new wave era. He was making things that really reflected that attitude, those attitudes towards what was about to happen. It’s kind of like Reagan era, you know? It’s timely as well to be showing this work with Donald Trump being at the Whitehouse. Mike Kelley would be making some art about that for sure. I think the way that he did those things was kind of a banner for artists to go ‘Ok, here’s someone doing something different and something that’s a bit more radical and it’s a bit more charged’ so I think if you were to line up most, sadly male artists, of the past 20 years, there would be elements of Mike Kelley’s practice kind of seeping out.

Why is it so important that you incorporated performance and live acts into the exhibition space?

To try reiterate the genesis of the punk scene in LA but not just rent a few punk bands and say ‘Well this is what Mike Kelley would have done’ and have a Taco truck out the front. I guess it was working with two groups which kind of embodied the spirit of Mike Kelley’s art or his output. So the first act which was two weeks ago by Philip Brophy; the performance that he kind of did parodied a lot of rock and progressive rock styles, like Mike Kelley, had it’s own twist and energy to deal with how that stuff is consumed and how it’s kind of based on really basic principles but I guess has become a huge juggernaut. We’ve also had the Menstruation Sisters, they used to be on Thurston Moore’s label and while Kim Gordon would have worked with Mike Kelley more than Thurston the association was nice. The Menstruation Sisters came out of the scene in the mid 1990s where you’ve sort of got avant-garde and noise bands starting out but they just stripped things back to being a three piece without too much paraphenalia. It’s very much a live experience.

In an age of political correctness, how have younger generations perceived Kelley’s work?

It’s been interesting having younger people come in and discover Mike Kelley for the first time and then remarking that there is such a great sense of humor in the work. I think that comes from artists seeing an older artist. Young artists are making work these days and it’s so kind of polite and self-conscious about how it’s going to offend or upset. There’s so much based on the audience reading or the outcomes of the work, rather than making the work and the work doing what it’s supposed to do. And not being apologetic for what happens when the work is doing what it’s supposed to do.

What do you hope the audience will get out of this show?

I hope they can take away that it’s a tiny glimpse into an artist’s work who is under shown or undervalued out here but has widely influenced a lot of artists. And also that you can make art with a sense of humour, things don’t always need to be completely serious and art can be fun.

This article was originally published on i-D.co in 2016.