Comments on: Rebellious Yet Tender Exuberance: Mike Kelley (1954-2012) https://artcritical.com/2012/02/16/mike-kelley-tributes/ Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:22:08 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.3 By: Janese Weingarten https://artcritical.com/2012/02/16/mike-kelley-tributes/#comment-15375 Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:49:07 +0000 https://artcritical.com/?p=22828#comment-15375 In reply to Rea Tajiri.

I enjoyed reading about your memories of encounters with Mike at Cal Arts. Mike was not only one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met, but, also one of the most humorous. Anyone who had the opportunity to see that side of his personality is lucky indeed.

]]> By: Rea Tajiri https://artcritical.com/2012/02/16/mike-kelley-tributes/#comment-15348 Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:20:44 +0000 https://artcritical.com/?p=22828#comment-15348 I met MIke when I was 19. His studio was across the ‘aisle’ from mine in a large room in the lower level of the Cal Arts main building that housed a collection of ‘shanties’ or makeshift ‘studio’ spaces. I think it was room A107. He was a grad student and I remember being a bit shocked by him at first. In those days he cultivated a kind of ‘greasy rat’ look. Over time, I became very curious and intrigued. Since he was a grad student, he had one of the studios that had a door with a padlock on it. the comings and goings in and out of that studio were always of interest– sometimes giant props would emerge, a large megaphone or other stuff carried in and out . I grew to like him and over time realized his ‘crankiness’ also had a great tenderness….

I was interested in performance and Kabuki. One day MIke told me that the Grand Kabuki was coming to LA for a rare performance. He’d already bought tickets, so I rushed out and bought some too. I believe Jim Shaw also went. but in any event, I sat in a row behind him and we were in the first 8 rows. I was blown away, probably one of the strongest live performances I’d ever seen. I was grateful that someone who did these rambling punk performances like he did would be interested in the Kabuki and that he was the one who let me know they were in town. It showed me that a lot of eclectic influences can inform your process. His impression and sound effect of the main actors ‘mie’ was hilarious. Mike’s knowledge and vocabulary and research of the form was encyclopedic. He knew a lot, was a very smart, very well read man. I came to respect him and was in awe of him.

Another fragment from that era, I remember running into him in the aisle of a grocery store. it might have been in Valencia or maybe in hollywood. Amongst an odd assortment of albums selling for 1.99 was Funkadelic and George Clinton. I remember him standing in the aisle going on an informatively long ramble about Funkadelic and Bootsy Collins. Everytime I play maggot brain, I think of MIke.

Over the years, our paths would cross. I have memories of running into him in dive bars, like the tiki tai in silverlake/hollywood. Then, sometime in the late 80s in a fancy hotel restaurant in Chicago with a bunch of other folks all of us drinking. I always liked Mike immensely. Having a conversation with him was razor laser clear, connected and funny. No matter what the circumstances, spanning the trajectories of our lives, though we were not close, I know I could look him straight in the eye and he’d tell me something I needed to know.

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