Mike Kelley at UMMA

A&D alumnus Mike Kelley (BFA 1976) inaugurates UMMA’s New Media Gallery with his video work Day is Done, on view from August 27 — December 31, 2011. In this epic piece, Kelley uses found images from high school yearbooks as points of departure to stage a series of loosely connected video narratives about ​“socially accepted rituals of deviance.” Often depicting people in costume, frequently singing or dancing, the episodes remind Kelley of music videos. ​“In fact,” he has written, ​“I consider Day Is Done to be a kind of fractured feature-length musical…The experience of viewing it is somewhat akin to channel-surfing on television.” 

For more information on the exhibition, visit University of Michigan Museum of Art — Mike Kelley: Day is Done.

ART 21: Mike Kelley reveals how photographs from yearbooks and newspapers in Detroit served as the inspiration behind the performative project ​“Day Is Done”.