Cathy's Art Diary

Confusing   exhibition at Hauser and Wirth highlighting a video installation by Mike Kelley. I'd struggled with the retrospective of Kelley's work at Tate Modern and I'm afraid this didn't make much more sense to me. I've just reread the webpage and I think I understand the show   bit more. The heart was a video "Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #36 (Vice Anglais)" and the show included paintings of the characters in it plus sculptures made from the props. However the video being shown was actually a companion piece "Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #36B (Made in England)" . No wonder I was confused! Closed 19 April 2025  

Incomprehensible exhibition at Tate Modern on the art of experimental artist Mike Kelley. I’m sorry I tried but I just didn’t understand this show. I always find it hard to engage with conceptual art with a performance element in a static exhibition but it can work if well explained. I must admit I’d already done two exhibitions and an installation at the gallery so I probably wasn’t at my most receptive. That said I found the labels almost unreadable as they didn’t always explain where the work had been show nor really what it represented. I never found the overriding description for the last room so was left very confused. On the whole I didn’t find the work that attractive but that said I liked this revolving screen with projected images and I might try the wax tower with my Christmas candles! Closes 9 March 2025 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Large installation at Hauser and Wirth by Mike Kelley. The work dates from 1999 and took up the whole space. The first section was a rectangular enclosure built to look like a Chinese gate complete with pink and red lanterns. The second was a grotto/landscape made of concrete with splodges of spray-paint colour with cheap religious statuary and coins. OK I admit it, I had no idea what it represented or meant! Reading the blurb it’s saying something about the Los Angeles Chinese-American community and cultural collision but I didn’t get any of that form just looking at it! I think I just found it a bit of a mess. Closes on 19 November 2016