Screening: ‘Day Is Done’ by Mike Kelley

On the occasion of ‘Mike Kelley: Kandors 1999 – 2011’, organized in collaboration with the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, join us for a screening of Kelley’s groundbreaking feature-length film, ‘Day Is Done: Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions #2 – #32’ (2005/2006). Dancing Goths, singing vampires, hick story-tellers, malevolent barbers, and the Virgin Mary populate Kelley’s conceptual musical. This hilarious and disturbing video, written and directed by Mike Kelley, with original music by Kelley and Scott Benzel and choreography by Kate Foley, explores American popular rituals and entertainments by weaving together 31 scenes based on high school yearbook photographs of extracurricular activities. As early as 2009, Kelley began to conflate his two major ongoing projects: The Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction series—originally conceived as a 365-tape opus, one tape for each day of the year, 31 iterations of which constitute ‘Day is Done’—and the Kandors series. The video installation ‘Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #35 (Dour Gnomes)’ (2010), currently on view in the North Gallery, connects to the Kandors series through a narrative that transports the viewer inside the sci-fi city of Kandor. Additionally, EAPR #36 (Vice Anglais), the final installment of the unfinished project, is on view in the East Gallery. Run time: 169 minutes. Viewer discretion advised. This event is free, however, reservations are recommended. Click here to register. About the Artist Over the course of his four-decade career, Mike Kelley (1954 – 2012) produced a provocative and rich oeuvre that conflates the highest and lowest forms of popular culture in a relentless critical examination of social relations, cultural identity, and systems of belief. Through an extensive variety of media, including drawing, painting and sculpture, video and photography, performance, music, and a formidable body of critical writing, Kelley sought to reveal the unexpected connections and contradictions of the American vernacular.