High School Grotesque

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More About

• Mike Kelley
• Sonic Youth
• High School Education
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

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In 2005, artist Mike Kelley -- the guy behind the stuffed animals on Sonic Youth's Dirty -- made the New York art world tremble with his groundbreaking exhibit "Day Is Done." As part of an emerging art scene that threw everything it had at gallery goers, with sensory overloaded exhibits bursting with installations, video, sculptures, music, and paintings, Kelley hammered people with noise, light, color, and movement. His starting point was humble: an old high school yearbook. He restaged the photographs using his own models, then constructed video skits out the ritualistic scenes, while adding his own bizarre, grotesque touches -- a devil leading a conga line with his balls, for example, and Nazi bikers rapping about overweight women. Although the cacophonic exhibit has long been torn down, tonight you can witness the video portions with a screening of Day is Done. Fair warning, though: It lasts 169 minutes. Feel free to get up and move around a bit -- Kelley isn't about stasis.
Thu., May 29, 7 p.m., 2008