Stopgap Measures: Writings on Mike Kelley 1986-2023
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Stopgap Measures presents an exciting selection of essays, interviews and shorter pieces written over more than three decades by noted art historian and cultural critic John C. Welchman. It includes reflections on specific works including Kelley’s early performances Confusion (1981-84) and Monkey Island (1982-83); Liquid Diet (1989/2006), the artist’s only extended reflection on the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland; Fresh Acconci (1995, with Paul McCarthy); Petting Zoo created for Skulptur Projekte Münster, 2007; the landmark installation Day Is Done (2005); and Kelley’s final work Mobile Homestead. The volume features a signature series of pathbreaking essays on Kelley’s innovations in photography, writing, physical comedy and verbal humor; memory, popular culture, dress-up and Americana; the uncanny, imaginative projection and dark fantasy; appropriation and giving; authorship and self-construction; and the artist’s little-remarked negotiation with histories of and ideas about Asia. The book concludes with a new essay connecting the refrain disappearances that punctuate Kelley’s career with specters of social catastrophe and nuclear annihilation.