The Uncanny
Mike Kelley
1993
The Uncanny
The Uncanny
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“The Uncanny” presents Mike Kelley as artist and curator, one year after his first major European exhibition at the ICA, London, in 1992. Organized by Sonsbeek 93 at the Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, Netherlands, in 1993, the ...
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The Uncanny
Mike Kelley
1993
Arnhem and Los Angeles: Sonsbeek 93 and Fred Hoffman
Unpaginated [150 pages]
24 × 17 cm

“The Uncanny” presents Mike Kelley as artist and curator, one year after his first major European exhibition at the ICA, London, in 1992. Organized by Sonsbeek 93 at the Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, Netherlands, in 1993, the curatorial project and its accompanying artist’s book represent the culmination of Kelley's long-term engagement with the Freudian concept of Das Unheimliche (1919), which describes the unsettling convergence of the familiar and the strange: "The uncanny is in reality nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old-established in the mind and which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression."


 


Expanding on this notion, Kelley conceived an exhibition centred on memory, repression, anxiety, death, sexuality, and the grotesque. Prefaced by an original psychoanalytic and iconographic essay written by the artist, the exhibition brings together works by Robert Gober, Edward Kienholz, Martin Kippenberger, Sandy Skoglund, Cindy Sherman, and others, each exploring, in distinct ways, the disquieting nature of the ordinary. Through a carefully orchestrated juxtaposition of artworks and vernacular artefacts (including inflatable dolls, anatomical models, educational objects, and curiosities), Kelley stages an excavation of his own fears and obsessions, transforming the act of curating into one of psychological inquiry and liberation.

Arnhem and Los Angeles: Sonsbeek 93 and Fred Hoffman
Unpaginated [150 pages]
24 × 17 cm

“The Uncanny” presents Mike Kelley as artist and curator, one year after his first major European exhibition at the ICA, London, in 1992. Organized by Sonsbeek 93 at the Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, Netherlands, in 1993, the curatorial project and its accompanying artist’s book represent the culmination of Kelley's long-term engagement with the Freudian concept of Das Unheimliche (1919), which describes the unsettling convergence of the familiar and the strange: "The uncanny is in reality nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old-established in the mind and which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression."

 

Expanding on this notion, Kelley conceived an exhibition centred on memory, repression, anxiety, death, sexuality, and the grotesque. Prefaced by an original psychoanalytic and iconographic essay written by the artist, the exhibition brings together works by Robert Gober, Edward Kienholz, Martin Kippenberger, Sandy Skoglund, Cindy Sherman, and others, each exploring, in distinct ways, the disquieting nature of the ordinary. Through a carefully orchestrated juxtaposition of artworks and vernacular artefacts (including inflatable dolls, anatomical models, educational objects, and curiosities), Kelley stages an excavation of his own fears and obsessions, transforming the act of curating into one of psychological inquiry and liberation.

DESCRIPTION

“The Uncanny” presents Mike Kelley as artist and curator, one year after his first major European exhibition at the ICA, London, in 1992. Organized by Sonsbeek 93 at the Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, Netherlands, in 1993, the curatorial project and its accompanying artist’s book represent the culmination of Kelley's long-term engagement with the Freudian concept of Das Unheimliche (1919), which describes the unsettling convergence of the familiar and the strange: "The uncanny is in reality nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old-established in the mind and which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression."

 

Expanding on this notion, Kelley conceived an exhibition centred on memory, repression, anxiety, death, sexuality, and the grotesque. Prefaced by an original psychoanalytic and iconographic essay written by the artist, the exhibition brings together works by Robert Gober, Edward Kienholz, Martin Kippenberger, Sandy Skoglund, Cindy Sherman, and others, each exploring, in distinct ways, the disquieting nature of the ordinary. Through a carefully orchestrated juxtaposition of artworks and vernacular artefacts (including inflatable dolls, anatomical models, educational objects, and curiosities), Kelley stages an excavation of his own fears and obsessions, transforming the act of curating into one of psychological inquiry and liberation.

Arnhem and Los Angeles: Sonsbeek 93 and Fred Hoffman
Unpaginated [150 pages]
24 × 17 cm

“The Uncanny” presents Mike Kelley as artist and curator, one year after his first major European exhibition at the ICA, London, in 1992. Organized by Sonsbeek 93 at the Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, Netherlands, in 1993, the curatorial project and its accompanying artist’s book represent the culmination of Kelley's long-term engagement with the Freudian concept of Das Unheimliche (1919), which describes the unsettling convergence of the familiar and the strange: "The uncanny is in reality nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old-established in the mind and which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression."

 

Expanding on this notion, Kelley conceived an exhibition centred on memory, repression, anxiety, death, sexuality, and the grotesque. Prefaced by an original psychoanalytic and iconographic essay written by the artist, the exhibition brings together works by Robert Gober, Edward Kienholz, Martin Kippenberger, Sandy Skoglund, Cindy Sherman, and others, each exploring, in distinct ways, the disquieting nature of the ordinary. Through a carefully orchestrated juxtaposition of artworks and vernacular artefacts (including inflatable dolls, anatomical models, educational objects, and curiosities), Kelley stages an excavation of his own fears and obsessions, transforming the act of curating into one of psychological inquiry and liberation.

MORE BOOKS

“The Uncanny” presents Mike Kelley as artist and curator, one year after his first major European exhibition at the ICA, London, in 1992. Organized by Sonsbeek 93 at the Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, Netherlands, in 1993, the curatorial project and its accompanying artist’s book represent the culmination of Kelley's long-term engagement with the Freudian concept of Das Unheimliche (1919), which describes the unsettling convergence of the familiar and the strange: "The uncanny is in reality nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old-established in the mind and which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression."

 

Expanding on this notion, Kelley conceived an exhibition centred on memory, repression, anxiety, death, sexuality, and the grotesque. Prefaced by an original psychoanalytic and iconographic essay written by the artist, the exhibition brings together works by Robert Gober, Edward Kienholz, Martin Kippenberger, Sandy Skoglund, Cindy Sherman, and others, each exploring, in distinct ways, the disquieting nature of the ordinary. Through a carefully orchestrated juxtaposition of artworks and vernacular artefacts (including inflatable dolls, anatomical models, educational objects, and curiosities), Kelley stages an excavation of his own fears and obsessions, transforming the act of curating into one of psychological inquiry and liberation.

MORE BOOKS