Minor Histories: Statements, Conversations, Proposals

What John C. Welchman calls the blazing network of focused conflations from which Mike Kelley’s styles are generated is on display in all its diversity in this second volume of the artist’s writings. The first volume, Foul Perfection, contained thematic essays and writings about other artists; this collection concentrates on Kelley’s own work, ranging from texts in voices that grew out of scripts for performance pieces to expository critical and autobiographical writings. Minor Histories organises Kelley’s writings into five sections. Statements consists of twenty pieces produced between 1984 and 2002 (most of which were written to accompany exhibitions), including Ajax, which draws on Homer, Colgate-Palmolive and Longinus to present its eponymous hero; Some Aesthetic High Points, an exercise in autobiography that counters the standard artist bio included in catalogues and press releases; and a sequence of creative writings that use mass cultural tropes in concert with high art mannerisms - approximating in prose the visual styles that characterise Kelley’s artwork. Video Statements and Proposals are introductions to videos made by Kelley and other artists.