Mike Kelley's major interviews and critical essays.
This volume brings together a dozen zestful interviews and conversations between the LA-based artist Mike Kelley and some of the leading voices in contemporary culture over the last couple of decades.
They range from extended discussions with his artist-friends
Jim Shaw and
Tony Oursler, which are essential for any understanding of their formative work, to probing dialogues with performer
Michael Smith,
AA Bronson of
General Idea and German painter/writer
Jutta Koether.
Kelley also talks with the photographer/filmmaker Larry Clark and artist
Richard Prince, with
Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore of
Sonic Youth, and with noted filmmakers John Waters and
Harmony Korine.
The book begins and ends with two conversations with critics: volume editor,
John C. Welchman talks to Kelley about the nature of talking, and Jeffrey Sconce about Kelley's innovative exhibitions
The Uncanny (1993 and 2004).
Mike Kelley (1954-2012) was an artist and writer based in Los Angeles. He was the curator of the exhibition
The Uncanny (1993/2004), and his writings, edited by
John C. Welchman, were published in two volumes by MIT Press in 2004.
