Greta's Ravensbourne Blog: Tate Modern. Poetry And Dream. Mike Kelley

TATE MODERN.

POETRY AND DREAM.

MIKE KELLEY.

CHANNEL ONE, CHANNEL TWO, CHANNEL THREE

I just visited the Tate Modern for the first time. I saw many things, but not too many things grabbed my attention. My first impression about Tate Modern was good, there were plenty of exhibition rooms in the gallery. Each of them had a title or main idea. Most of the time the room had more than one artist in it, so I was a bit confused about why they were in the same place. I chose a which was focused around one artist, Mike Kelley. He was born in USA, Detroit (1954-2012). He lived in Los Angeles, was interested in folk myths, ufology, psychedelia and spiritualism..

The exhibition was named Poetry and Dreams, which took place on the second floor. The room I had chosen was room number 9, it had 3 sculptures in the center and a few photographs next to the walls. The three long plywood structures are named channels: one, two and three. They stood around one meter in height, had wooden tops, were rectangular in shape and an eyeholes. They were made of simple tin foil with light in the primary color of yellow, blue and red. Around were some wires and an old tape recorder.

The sculptures linked back to his early birdhouse pieces (1978). Despite their seemingly implausible designs, the birdhouses were accompanied by handwritten notes explaining their functional and philosophical features. At opposite sides of the room there were some photographs from Kelleys earlier performances. During the performance Kelley spoke into a tube connected to a tape player, whilst intermittently beating a bass drum. He recorded spirits voices on tape. There were pictures of the instruments he used during his performances.

Though the minimalistic sculptures appeared to be simply filled with light, they were filled with a mystical charge. I was attracted by the idea and I had to use my imagination to see more than a colour inside the sculptures. It’s a birdhouse with some connection between mystical part of the world. Birdhouse is a symbol. Kelley thought that the birdhouses were the same as spirit collectors, this meant his channels became homes to the birds, which he identified as spirits. The symbology of birds are frequently in galleries. Many artists portray birds in their works, expressing the“birds”in different shapes and forms. There are a few meanings of the birds I in this gallery: child, warrior, friend and danger.

The Kelleys minimalism sculpture is like gates to ulterior part of the world and channel plays a link role. I explore Kelleys researches of mysterious part of the world and the channel is like a bridge to it.

The thing I didn’t like in Mike Kelleys exhibition was I saw the pictures from earlier works, which suppose to supplement the exhibition. But every photography makes even more questions - pictures from performances made in 1978 haven’t the best quality and there are not to many of them. If you just see the photography of musical instrument you cant hear a sound it makes. If you see just a photography from performance you cant feel the spirit of it And all the exhibition is about feeling something mysterious and paranormal and for that you can use only your eyes.

It was the only one room I entered and it left me many thoughts in my head even after I went out. I never saw the art and mystics things got into together.

In channel one, channel two and channel three Mike Kelley subverts the rational forms of minimalist sculpture, imbuing them with a mystical psychedelic charge.