“MIRE Toa beim uae eg bial | poeded in September of Day Is Done (Extracur- sicular Activity Projective Reconstructioas 3D Mike Kolley’s new and 1 shat is presented in continuing werk im progress. Activity Pi tive Reconstruction. JW: Thar will never fit on a manguce in a mall Mike! [Laugh | Tknow that a let of artists today ‘waa krack rue epi MK: It's PUTS. 80 hours. ds this your Four Stars? tually going to consist of 365 ypposed to fast almest a year. he videos that you sent me, but the entire ty all iogeth sce going to be when it's 0 show it’at the Gagosian New York, I'm taking all the walls. computer-synched. Imagine you re se whe 1s are stored Hage ing the Stations of the Cross? that, bur I was thinking more of product pavilions at a state f ream: wan roam from booth to booth. u'll have shaw times? ME: No, tut thie video sequences will run simaltancously, spaced 99 that the action without spending long would re thing, rihey see art videos, their heast But oh just «movie... sand making them. Forexample, these sculptures out of that f one of which is a van ies up and made al Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #19 Shy Satanisi desi, 20448, 1 of 2 parts, hw and cok. photos, 76x fem each. Oppaste: Extracurricular Activity Projeetive Reconstruction #12 (Thugs) (de- tea, 2004-05, hulti-part blob: one character out of shree IW: So, newarworks are mad props. When di you start on. hacthe pendent MK: Perhaps more'ike a TV moc JW: I love that you wanted to tape it like arty TV MK: When eas wor lockedat a y ‘ls, like “The Lawerence Welk Show” and the ed Skelton and Milton Beste shims. I wasinter- vomns... basically live with thee carmeras. IW: How mut ME: Well 1 hurl an assistant director, airector of2 parts, Why andl en. photos. 6.x 66cm each. Courtesy of Gagasian Gallery, New Vork. of photography, couple of sound people wher camera people, & small video crew JW: All aped in Los Angeles? MR: Yes IW: In.one location? MK: No, all of the shots on sets were taped in my own studio, but there were a few locations such as « gymnasium and CalAns, which I rented when it was empty in the summer. All of the corporate-looking so were shot at CalArts: the office interiors and hallways. And all of the woodland sc hos in a park near my home. JW: You aad that you were at gallery vers cad. loca Gis, with bw e next te-each ather installation I do thi b 3 slikePm not sure if T would do that in the jannel versica, sai you were trying to be "gn tha? Think of the proj a total arwork in ian manner. But thea, Hollywood hat: mixtures of writing. dance. T'm attempting 1 make a the Wag films theater, music. (Educational you couldn't tix a lot about attended The pay blank. Complex, 1995; remember were | recovered memory, ¢ MK: Exacily. Thea, ago, | did the first video-in the series: A Domestic Scene, IW: Do you believe ia ‘memary recovery’? ME: I have grave misgivings. And I know that there have been hoerible mescurn using this theory as an excuse ity ever recovers good memories Oh, Lemember when tome and Fd forgonten! ‘The whole idea strikes me as simply an inversion of the family romar talk of “mimicking victim Yes, it's the idea that all motivation is reluied to repressed trauma, took that as my searing point. Realty is not interesting enough, Extracurricular Activity Projectve Reconstruction #32 (Horse Dance of the False Virgin, 2004-08. 2 parts, bw andi col. photos. 41 x 76 em each, Gouriesy of Gagosian Gallery, New York. so boad at wich repressed trauma. But then all of my ‘recovered me Blandest forms of folk e swbich, perhaps JW: Did you do extracurricular activities? ¥ dik fe only one where w or sports stuff. I didn’t even go to graduation! But this picce isn’t aboot high school. [t's tural rituals. ‘books place to find pictures of T'm talking about ase carnivalesque ucts up day” at the bank or office: Jeans Friday. TW I don't thik they di high school = Whea I was. kid, you'd go into the bank (on Finday and it would be “Gay Nineties day at when Twas in IW I remember once’ I went inde: the fand they all were wearing fall H. eostames. Herw do-you a £9 io somec ithe morning Jlaugh ] I's so pathetic w see workers allowed sich phony “frcodcens. ne of my favorite parts: the fscism' of Mary.. the “revenge' of Mar. MIG: That was my attempt to mimic the look of Dario Argento's horror films. But no, thai’s not the finale. scene? That is JW: And then there's the barbershop scene. That ly speaks te me, | was sentenced to the | shop by my school.. they would force me ve. Fad the harnor of going ta the + barbershop. They always had the wor ygaizines, like Fickd & Stream. A barbershop is rally man's place cto, 25.4 boy, of pas men always demean your it just omic! Ges to the harheeshop. fe for barbershaps in ) How long did it take you this? Hone many shootong days? fifteen days, We would cnes in ad. It ME: No. I put ads in the professional papers: they are real actors. Tae big problem was that he actors had to look like the people photographs, which was very Bit IW: Has working on this project made you want to make a tradisional feature mnie? MEK: Not a traditional one, but l'd like to make a fear film Ie fact I'd like to tans the si channel version af Day Js Done ws 35mm Bim and submit itto festivals like Suadance. f worth a try. Thave been ag else I've ‘ertainly it many juries and it isn't like amyshi ever sent... You know aned laughter MEK: | used canned laughter, mixed with heavy ‘emotional’ filmic music, in the Singles” Mixer scene. ['s designed to he contradictory JW: You sent me a list af'seven subjects that the‘every yet naw about but doesn’t worse nt thas was really id Bleached hair in junior high, did. I got my school ly someone had to let my fool so I'm nat in Aiiong the seven categories you list are mances. Did y tin school? MK: Yes, [wentta a Catholic elementary schol IW: Were you ix pageants? MK: I was in a May Crowning ceremony once. U think I was picked because T was the smallest boy in class. The May Canming/Hag Mary vidoolape comes cut ofthat experience. IW: Oh, God! Did you use your pictures of i MKK: No. | don’t have any pictures of it. But I did an image search on Google for May Crowaing and thousinds of pictures came up. May Crown e still be performed... it's so pagan! JW: And thugs, everybody had d ad them. Thugs of these exiracurricular act ng? MK: No, I wasn't a thug. Bot I knew ther grin school. 1 And there're MEK: Yes, some-of this prject developed out of a version of the musical Li'l Abmer re-written inthe style of HP Lovecraft that I had bea working can. Lconsader Day fs Done to be amusical, AW: Niow: Halloween of course wae. big deal. 1 Halloween, but I loved it Dh, it's always been my favorite yy; it's close to my birthday. Birth day/death day... right rm and vandalize. Afr the Detroit riots in “67 peaple would set the inner city on fire every Devil's Night as akind of anniversary just a nostalgic looking back to rural © Upping the outhouse over. But nd. That really developedin the seventies. Iwas an adult already, I Found it silly JW: But you, visually, have a lat of that in year work ME: | think it's because it’s such a common cultural myth. Satanic an twvo of the jominam cultural i The other thing shat ¥en ped in your tape dance that's supposed donkey baie game JW: What's tha ME: ls an inversion-of roles event where ers play basketball whileriding fc to-do. I's purpovely ridiculous: the doakeys ust erapon the Hloor, and the players fallaffof hem. Sometimes the players rag. TL was very cominon in schools when | was a kid. Leven went i ont Las Angels in the carly Fve never heard of 0 ‘would always be a iy dressed as a MK: | think tht the most people to cringe. The Picking a Mary contest scene is a mixture of the TV show What Not to Wear, which is a fashion make-over show, arid a scene that focuses on a girl's poise class from Froderick Wisoman's documentary High Schoo! that will cause JW: J thought it was behween a cute Miss Amer riticism: —Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #24 (May Maenad) (detail), 2004-05. 1 of parts, Lhfw and col,photographs, 76 x $1 cm each, Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery, New York. MK: All of the fashion critique is pattemod afier the advice given on What Not to Wear. which I think is a disgustiag show because they take persons who have very individual street style and make them over to look like Mashattan boutique salespeople JW: Your contest is a religious version of that, There is even a supplicating Joseph. It seems to be the male inumuilaation version of the story. MK: I found that long self-deprecating specch by Joseph in the Apoceyptw. | didn't wre any of it! eis so incredibly masochistic. y Joseph iy pussy whipped? MK: Completely pussy whipped! It's obvious tat be and Mary are never going to have sex! JW: Or she doesn’t remember. which is worse! [Laugh] So, after this scene there's the May Crowning ceremony. MK: Yes, Mary is picked, and then she is crowned. That's the public display of the acw Mary. 0 have a shadlone dance and IW: And yo: @ gospel dance, ME: The Gospel Dance is one of three pre manital enterinments presented for M: amusement. The Shadow Dance is the erotic dance: i's designed to be a kand ef “manta ad” for Mary. The third entertainer ley. The lite prt init és Fie Shaw and Marnie Weber's damghier, Collen She daaoed to some children’s music, which I cut out and replaced with electronic music. Ht doesn't ft at all. That kina of fection inerests me. The work is very much about deciding when to adhere tothese folk forms, and when to deviate foom them. 1 fike to push them toward either more ovenly ritualistic practices or modemist avant-garde conventions. 1 like to make them ‘artsy’ in a very mean way. IW: Did you go to tay real school pageants swhile you were shooting MK: No. But [went io achikdren’s version of Li'l Abner sponsored by a church, I found it very inspiring. JW: I ws imited io 2 school far mentally flenged children that redid the musical Hairspeay. I couldn't go for legal reasons but J ahways thought it could have been the best production of the plas: MK: Next door 0 me is a home for juve delinquents. They're inc Iowe to do some kind of with them: somethiag they have no inteest in. It doesn’t maticr what it is: Pm just imerested in capturing their disdain. Td like to work with antrained people who represent different types of institutional environments IW: There's usually an ad ithe director's fuild trade paper that sus, “imagine what i would be like if you dida’t have professional actors and difiereat part.” it might work in some ways, but in some ways it can be terrible. A lot of people in real life have amazing personalities but when you turn a camena on them dey can't even play temnsel vs. MK: I know, but on the other hand there ar: directors who are masters at using nen-tained actor... like Pasolini or Fellini, Or Warhol, he cemainiy knew hawto pick people IW: He Inew he picked the right ones, Fellini veo just pat words sn their mouths in massive post-production work. What about the post- ‘productiom and the soundbrack of your work? ME: Most of the dialogue. music and sound were inserted after the editing. The shoots were nothing compared tn the post- production process. JW: I's a bisge projett, you've made an epic: MK: That could be a problem: this whole thing could just be one enormous vanity project. a, I think you have celebrated Hollywood reugh amateur pageants n weal if, Well Mike, J think you maybe have made the Mike Kelley Berlin Alexanderplatz! : die Were war born in Bakimere, Maryland. in 1286, He er andsvords de atimore anf Now ork Ne Keley was Bor in Demo: Michigan it POSS, He ver nds in Los Angeles Special thanks to Ei Fonana who mae thi intervicw poke,