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Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

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Mike Kelley

Untitled #1

1994

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This sleek metal plaque in an ovular shape, derived from the outlines of a UFO, contains an amorphous oozing creature with tentacles and a human eye. In the 1990s multimedia artist Mike Kelley created critical works based on a confrontation of the ugly, the worthless, and the tragic. To Kelley, excrement, waste, and the deformed human body—epitomized by the alien creature depicted here—represent society’s self-abasement and self-loathing. In his 1997 essay on ufology (the study of UFOs), Kelley wrote: “Ufology pictures an aesthetic collision between a housing structure, the UFO, and an alien element that inhabits this house, in an uncommon aesthetic mixture of the abject and the technological.” In Untitled #1 the combination of a sleek exterior and an unformed, menacing interior may address repressed inadmissible desires or predilections. [Permanent collection label, 2016]

  • Artist Mike Kelley (American, 1954–2012)
  • Title Untitled #1
  • Date 1994
  • Medium Enamel on aluminum
  • Dimensions unframed | 66 5/8 x 46 5/8 x 1 3/4 in.
  • Credit line Gift of Peter Norton, 2015
  • Object number 45.2015

Rotation 2: Contemporary Art from the Peter Norton Gift
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/11/2015 - 10/19/2015

Received 3/23/2015
Peter Norton (Los Angeles, CA)

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

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