Extracurricular activity Projective Reconstruction #1 (Domestic Scene)
Installation with wall sections, carpet, table, stove, base with ceramic sculpture, sink, dresser, folding bed, burner plates, coffee pot, bread box, waste basket, champagne bottle and glasses, plant stand, 2 framed black & white photographs; 1 framed color photograph; 3 framed paintings; 30-minute video.
Video: 29min. 41sec. Video (Installation): 304.8 x 875 x 731.5 cm
Comprising an immense theater set emptied of its characters, a video on a monitor, and a photographic diptych, A Domestic Scene is the first work in the Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions series, a vast group of works created by Mike Kelley between 2000 and 2012, based on images found in American high school yearbooks.
The black-and-white video opens with a still image of a stage play: two young men stand in an odd setting that combines a sculpture on a pedestal with a bed next to an open oven. From this found image, Mike Kelley hires actors and writes a script for what might unfold, in a parody of melodrama that gives free rein to the deviance of contemporary society. Addressing issues of identity, psychological control, self-denial, and suicide with dark and biting humor, the work initiates the Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions cycle, which Kelley intended to create 365 pieces for—one ritual for each day of the year. Ending his life in 2012, he completed over thirty.
A claustrophobic work that explores psychological trauma, Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #1 (A Domestic Scene) by Mike Kelley is part of the Pinault Collection. It was first exhibited at the Sequence 1 exhibition at the Palazzo Grassi in 2007
