Over the course of his four-decade career, Mike Kelley (1954 – 2012) consistently addressed the relation of establishment culture to counterculture. He shed light on social rituals and subcultures, whilst simultaneously parodying the imposition of institutionalized power and instruction. With his Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction (EAPR) series (2000 – 2011), Kelley set out to make 365 videos and video installations, one for each day of the year. The EAPR series came to an early end with ‘Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #36 (Vice Anglais)’ (2011), one of the last videos Kelley ever made. In collaboration with Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, the exhibition centers on this final EAPR, which will be shown alongside related works. These include a series of never-before exhibited paintings of the cast of transgressive characters, as well as a lenticular lightbox from this EAPR and sculptures made using props from the video. The show will also present ‘Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #36B (Made in England)’ (2011), a companion video to ‘Vice Anglais.’
The EAPR are a series of ‘video narratives’ that were often accompanied by sculptural installations of partial or full stage sets. Kelley drew his inspiration for each video from his large collection of found archival images and high school yearbooks depicting amateur extracurricular activities that have a strong relationship to popular and folk entertainments. Kelley’s work can be viewed as drawing on a carnivalesque or subversive spirit at odds with the institutional nature and officialdom of the education system. In light of this, these EAPR works can be seen as evoking concepts that belong to counterculture, including ideas of ‘deschooling society.’
Duration | 04 February 2025 - 17 April 2025 |
Times | Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm |
Cost | Free |
Venue | Hauser & Wirth (London) |
Address | 23 Savile Row, London, W1S 2ET |
Contact | / london@hauserwirth.com / www.hauserwirth.com |