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Blackout
Kelley constructs idiosyncratic
and sometimes improbable histories as
groundwork for his artistic production.
In Blackout, he explores his nostalgia
for the local culture of his youth in
Westland, Michigan, while engaging in
a fantasy search for the "Land O’
Lakes" girl during a boat trip to
the islands of the Detroit River. The
installation consists of large-scale sculpture
and photographs. Interested in the pop
psychology theory of repressed memory
syndrome, Kelley created an eight-part
photo montage in which large portions
of the image, intended as a panorama,
were "blacked out" due to a
camera malfunction; he sees these as analogous
to lapses caused by repressed memories.
For the sculpture, Kelley
used a folk-art technique called "memory
ware," covering the surfaces with
broken bottles, tools, flatware, and pottery
shards collected on one of the islands.
The huge central sculptural figure is
based on a statue of astronaut John Glenn
that stood in the library of Westland
High School, Kelley's alma mater. Photo
reproductions of newspaper clippings (placed
in large black racks) document local culture
from 1968 to 1972. Each clipping is rendered
on three different types of paper, giving
them a documentary, nostalgic, or "art
photography" feel.
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