Reconstructions: a Room for Mike Kelley

Reconstructions: A Room for Mike Kelley is a series of collaborative works by artists Mary McIntyre & Robert Anderson, made in response to live performances by the late artist Mike Kelley (1954 -2012) produced during the late 1970’s and early 1990’s.When artists Mary McIntyre and Robert Anderson first encountered the performance works of Mike Kelley (1954 - 2012) it was through a series of small black and white photographs.

Disconnected from their original context, Kelley’s performance documentation constituted a bemusing series of images, which left them intrigued.The discovery of these photographs led McIntyre and Anderson to a growing fascination with the act of recording the 'live event' and how a photograph, with the primary function of faithfully documenting such an event, when divorced from context or supporting information, can take on an altogether different set of possibilities.It is that proposition which forms the basis for their collaborative project, ‘Reconstructions: A Room for Mike Kelley’.

Over a period of 10 years, McIntyre and Anderson have studied Kelley’s performance documentation and set about meticulously reconstructing the studio environments in which Kelley enacted his live works, from the basic plywood door that sits ajar, to the exact positioning of an odd collection of objects that lie strewn on the studio floor.These objects, constructed to mimic those found in Kelley’s performance documentation, which range from the strange to the familiar, from the plausible to the bizarre, act as potential cultural signifiers that can be read as both significant and mundane.However, in McIntyre and Anderson’s series of reconstructions, the figurative elements present in Kelley’s performance documentation, have been omitted.

Without a protagonist, their possible interpretation has been left deliberately open to allow for fluid shifts in meaning, depending on their perceived status, cultural context or individual readings stemming from viewer experience.In ‘Reconstructions: A Room for Mike Kelley’, McIntyre and Anderson present an empty stage, ready to come alive with myriad fictional histories, potential narratives and associations, made possible in the viewer’s imagination.