Mike Kelley and Michael Smith
dal 19/10/2011 al 14/1/2012
Segnalato da
19/10/2011
Mike Kelley and Michael Smith
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
A Voyage of Growth and Discovery. a remarkable collaboration between renowned American artists and longtime friends. The film is centres on Baby IKKI, a character developed by Smith for over thirty years. The screens of this film are enveloped by a fantasy stage-set evocative of the tents and towers of an eclectic festival. Part-creche, part-hippy commune, it coaxes a moment of our own regression.
After its great success in New York and Los Angeles, BALTIC Centre for
Contemporary Art, Gateshead is delighted to announce the UK premier of A Voyage of
Growth and Discovery, a remarkable collaboration between renowned American artists
and longtime friends Mike Kelley and Michael Smith.
A Voyage of Growth and Discovery centres on Baby IKKI, a character developed by
Smith for over thirty years. Here the pre-lingual man-child, dressed in a nappy,
sunglasses and baby’s bonnet, visits the Burning Man festival in the remote Black Rock
Desert of Nevada. Infamous for its carnivalesque atmosphere and existence beyond
wider societal norms, the annual event is an “experiment in temporary community
dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance.” Alone in his journey, yet
alongside thousands of revellers, the part-comedic, part-forlorn IKKI navigates ravers,
erotic encounters and basic human survival, while exploring the primal elements of
earth, air, fire and water.
Gathered from hours of raw footage and meticulously edited by Kelley and Smith, a six-channel video projection at the centre of the installation replays the baby’s ‘voyage’, as
performed by Smith, at the festival over five days and five nights. The narrative begins
with IKKI travelling to the desert in his mobile home, distracted by sweets, water,
matches, B-movies and cartoons that mirror his infantilism. At the festival he waddles
and dances, interacts with bizarrely costumed party-goers and finally, after days of
physical endurance and basic human survival, witnesses the culmination of the event in
its mass public ‘burn’. The film concludes with a day of post-festival wind down.
The screens of the film are enveloped by a fantasy stage-set evocative of the tents and
towers of the eclectic festival. Stuffed toys in oversized cages, a burnt-out VW campervan, bunting, coloured lights and portaloos are all included, along with a 30ft incarnation
in metal junk of IKKI himself. We are invited to contemplate IKKI’s existential journey in
this multi-sensory environment. Part-crèche, part-hippy commune, it coaxes a moment
of our own regression.
A Voyage of Growth and Discovery is curated by Emi Fontana and was co-produced
by West of Rome, Los Angeles and the Sculpture Center, Long Island City, New
York.
Mike Kelley was born in Detroit in 1954 and lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Recent solo exhibitions include: West of Rome, Los Angeles and Sculpture Center, New
York (2010); at WIELS Centre d'Art Contemporain, Brussels Belgium (2008); Musée du
Louvre, Paris (2006); Tate Liverpool (2004). His work has been included in numerous
important international exhibitions including the Carnegie International (2008); Skulptur
Projekts Munster (2007); the Venice Bienniale (1988) and five Whitney Biennials.
Mike Kelley received a BFA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1976) and a
MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (1978). His awards include The Louis
Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, National Endowment for the Visual Arts Fellowships,
and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among others.
Michael Smith was born in Chicago in 1951 and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York
and Austin, Texas.
Smith's artistic career includes live performance, video works, commercial and cable
television skits, puppet shows, exhibition installations, comic publications, and drawings.
He has performed and exhibited at venues as varied as Franklin Furnace, The Kitchen,
Caroline's Comedy Club, Dance Theatre Workshop, Henson International Puppet
Festival, Cinemax, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney, the New Museum, and
the Centre Pompidou. He was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. A retrospective of
his work, Mike’s World: Michael Smith and Joshua White (and other collaborators) was
presented at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin and traveled
to the ICA Philadelphia in 2008.
Smith has received numerous awards including fellowships from the NEA, The
Guggenheim Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts and The Louis Comfort
Tiffany Foundation. Smith is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas @ Austin.
Press contact:
Ann Cooper, Head of Communications T: 0191 440 4915 E: annc@balticmill.com
Nikki Johnson, Communications Assistant T: 0191 440 4912 E: nikkij@balticmill.com
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
Gateshead Quays, South Shore Road, Gateshead, NE8 3BA, UK
OPENING TIMES: Open Daily 10.00–18.00 except Tuesdays 10.30–18.00
Admission free