Eviscerated Corpse, 1989 by Mike Kelley Author(S): James E

The Art Institute of Chicago

Eviscerated Corpse, 1989 by Mike Kelley Author(s): James E. Rondeau Reviewed work(s): Source: Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 25, No. 1, Modern and Contemporary Art: The Lannan Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago (1999), pp. 66-67+100 Published by: The Art Institute of Chicago Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4113001 . Accessed: 01/02/2012 18:14

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http://www.jstor.org Mike Kelley (AMERICAN; BORN 1954)

Eviscerated Corpse, 1989 Foundstuffed animals, sewn together; dimensions variable [see p. 91]

ike Kelley takes pleasurein perversionand generosity exacts a psychic debt of obligation from the embracesbad taste. He first gainedrecogni- child. As Howard Fox has written, "in interpreting the tion in the undergroundmusic and perfor- transactionof the gift as a subtle kind of indenturedservi- mance scene in southernCalifornia in the late 1970s. Since tude, Kelley impeachesthe whole idea of giving, even the 1986 he has received widespread critical acclaim for his humblestof gifts."2 sculpturalinstallations made with stuffedanimals and dolls Kelley has long been obsessed with the body and its that he finds in bargainbins and thriftshops. Used, soiled, various functions, and the strange, cartoonish horror of and discarded,Kelley's pathetic toy orphansviolate the sen- EvisceratedCorpse presents childhood in particularas a timentalassociation of youth with innocence."Because dolls kind of pathological condition. Conventional dolls and representsuch an idealizednotion of childhood,"Kelley has stuffed animals always lack sexually specific anatomy, a said, "whenyou see a dirty one you think of a fouled child. reflectionof an adult desire to reinforceand maintainthe And so you think of a dysfunctionalfamily."' With scathing chastityof children.Kelley has saidthat "thestuffed animal blackhumor and the glee of an adolescentprankster, Kelley is a pseudo-child,a cutifiedsexless being which represents seems to relishsuch imagesof humiliationand degradation. the adult'sperfect model of a child-a neuteredpet."3 His His determinedcelebration of the abjectis at once a whim- vision of childhood, on the other hand, derives from a sical caricatureand a disturbinggrotesque. tumultuous Freudian battleground of competing sexual EvisceratedCorpse, one of Kelley'sbest-known objects, drives.Indeed, Kelley's icon of childhoodis a hypersexual- comesfrom a serieshe entitledHalfa Man,an ironic acknowl- ized monster.The tiny doll is eitherspilling her intestinesor edgmentof the unconventionalgender politics underlying his giving birth (or both), a horribleconflation of childhood, seeminglyinappropriate desire to playwith crafts,sewing, and motherhood,and death. J.E. R. stuffedanimals. Feminized and infantalized, Kelley positions his processas a transgressionof masculinetropes of artmaking. The work takesas its point of departurethe headof a small, femaledoll mountedon the wall at eye level.Her wide eyes, roundmouth, and floppy armssuggest a common,if slightly old-fashioned,Kewpie doll. In placeof a body,however, Kelley used a raggedassemblage of soft dolls and stuffedanimals to fashionan obscenelyexaggerated, womblike form extending from below the doll'shead to the floor.A serpentinechain of stuffedanimals, sewn end to end,spills out of thehollow cavity, suggestingthe entrailspromised by the title.The strangebio- morphicforms spiral across the galleryfloor, a dysfunctional daisy chainof stuffedworms and bananasthat ends with an oversizedsnake. Hardly the apotheosisof a sinisterphallic fiend,however, Kelley's monster is pink,soft, and fuzzy. Kelley first became interested in stuffed animals for their role within what he perceivesto be a taintedeconomy of exchangebetween adultsand children.Toys are afterall most often purchased by adults and given to children as gifts. For Kelley this transactionof emotional capitalrep- resents a manipulativeexercise of power and control:adult

66 MuseumStudies Museum Studies 67 Untitled (Last Light), 1993, pp. 84-85 JAAR, ALFREDO

i. The original specificationsfor the bulbs are as follows: ABCO, ten watt, candelabrabase, satin white, globe size G9, model #03864.The cer- Barcelona,Centre d'Art Santa Mbnica, et al. Let There be Light. The tificatefor the piece reads:"If these exact bulbs are not available,a simi- Rwanda Project, 1994-1998. 2 vols. Exh. cat. by Alfredo Jaar lar bulb of the same wattagemay be used."Gonzalez-Torres allowed the et al. 1998. addition of approximatelytwelve and one-half extra feet of cord at the Jaar,Alfredo. It is Difficult.Ten Years. Essay by Rick Pirro.Barcelona, 1998. end closest to the plug for installationpurposes. He also stated that the La Jolla, Calif., La Jolla Museum of ContemporaryArt. AlfredoJaar. light strandsmay be exhibitedwith all the bulbs turnedoff. Exh. cat. by MadeleineGrynsztejn. 199o. Richmond,Va., Virginia Commonwealth University, Anderson Gallery, et al. 2. The majority of Gonzalez-Torres'slight strings contain forty-two AlfredoJaar: Geography= War.Exh. cat. with essays by W. Avon bulbs. There are Untitled consists of twelve exceptions: (North) of 1993 Drake,Steven S. High, H. Ashley Kistler,and AdrianaValdes. 199I. light stringswith twenty-two bulbs each and Untitled (Arena)of 1993has sixty bulbs. Untitled and Untitled (Silver), both of 1992, and Untitled (LastLight) arethe only pieces with a total of twenty-fourbulbs each. JENSEN, ALFRED

Basel,Kunsthalle Basel. AlfredJensen. Exh. cat. by ArnoldRudlinger. 1964. HAMMONS,DAVID Bern,Kunsthalle Bern. AlfredJensen. Exh. cat. by WielandSchmied. 1973. Buffalo, Albright-KnoxArt Gallery.Alfred Jensen: Paintings and Dia- and Blazwick, Iwona, Emma Dexter. "Rich in Ruins."Parkett 31 (1992), gramsfrom the Years1957-i977. Exh. cat. with essays by Linda L. pp. 26-33. Cathcartand MarciaTucker. 1978. Jones, Kellie. "The Structure of Myth and the Potency of Magic." In New York,Pace Gallery.AlfredJensen: The Late Works.Exh. cat. 1983. David Hammons: the Rubble.New Rousing York,I991. Pp. 14-37. New York, Solomon R. GuggenheimMuseum. Alfred Jensen: Paintings Papastergiadis,Nikos. "David Hammons."In Cambridge,Eng., Kettle's and Workson Paper.Exh. cat. 1985. Yard. Re-writing History. Exh. cat. ed. by Anna Harding. 1990o. Pp. 21-22. The Acroatic Rectangle, Per XIII, 1967, pp. 32-33

American Costume, 1970, pp. 42-43 I. Jensen had had his first solo exhibition in New York in 1952,at the John Heller Gallery. Other of I. examples Hammons'sbody printsinclude 3 Spades(1971; pri- vate which a blackman in collection), depicts profileholding a largespade 2. Buffalo,p. 9I. underhis armand a smallerone in his left hand;and the powerfulInjustice Case (1973;Los Angeles County Museumof Art), in which an American 3. Most of the other paintingsfrom the series are in privatecollections, flag servesas the backgroundfor an imageof a blackman in profile,seated although examplesare held by the Whitney Museum of AmericanArt, in a chair,and tied up. The latterwork was inspiredby the 1969Chicago New York,and the Albright-KnoxArt Gallery,Buffalo. Eighttrial, at which the defendantBobby Sealewas bound and gagged. 4. ReginaBogat Jensen, the artist'swife, fax to author,June 9, 1998. 2. The WorksProgress Administration facilitated the implementationof a nationwide,public artsprogram by employingAmerican artists during the GreatDepression. KELLEY,MIKE

3. The term "Other"has been employedin the post-modernera as a refer- Barcelona,Museu d'Art Contemporanide Barcelona,et al. Mike Kelley: ence for entitiesoutside of the "Self."It has been commonlyused as a label 1985-1996. Exh. cat. ed. by M. Angeles Lopez and ElisendaPrat; for distinguishingwhat is alien from what is familiar;for examplefrom a trans.by GloriaBohigas. 1997. Eurocentricpoint of view, it might set apartthe non-Westernfrom the Bartman,William S., and Miyoshi Barosh,eds. Mike Kelley.Interview by Western,the non-whitefrom the white, the foreignfrom the local,etc. John Miller.New York, 1992. Basel, KunsthalleBasel, et al. Mike Kelley. Exh. cat. by Thomas Kellein 4. Hammons's use of found objects connects his work to twentieth- et al. 1992. centuryartistic movements such as Dada, Arte Povera,and OutsiderArt. Chicago,University of Chicago,Renaissance Society. Mike Kelley:Three Projects:Half a Man, From My Institutionto Yours,Pay For Your Pleasure.Exh. cat. 1988. HILL, GARY New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, et al. Mike Kelley, CatholicTastes. Exh. cat. by ElisabethSussman, with contributions Liverpool,Tate Gallery, et al. GaryHill: In Lightof the Other.Exh. cat. 1993. by RichardArmstrong et al. 1993. Seattle,University of Washington,Henry Art Gallery.Gary Hill. Exh. cat. 1994. Eviscerated Corpse, 1989, pp. 66-67 Valencia,IVAM Centre del carme.Gary Hill. Exh. cat. 1993. I. Kelley, quoted in Ralph Rugoff, "Dirty Toys: Mike Kelley Inter- Inasmuch As It Is Always Already Taking Place, 1990, pp. 72-73 viewed,"in Basel,p. 86.

I. GaryHill, "InasmuchAs It Is AlwaysAlready Taking Place," in Copen- 2. HowardFox, "Artistin Exile,"in New York,p. 191. hagen,Ny CarlsbergGlyptotek, Other Wordsand Images:Video af Gary Hill, exh. cat. (1990), p. 27. 3. Kelley,quoted in Washington,D.C., HirshhornMuseum and Sculpture Garden,Directions/Mike Kelley: Half a Man, exh. brochureby Amanda Cruz (i991),n. p.

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