Ritual to Art

Mike Kelley takes ritual and makes art out of it. He started working with stuffed animals. He explained this at first as symbolizing his individual child abuse. He then evolved this idea as a presumption that all motivation is a form of some kind of oppressed trauma.

Kelley was born a Catholic but never was a true believer. He had an interest in the materialist ritual and not the personal religious side. One of Kelley’s videos portrays his view of the Catholic “ritual,” showing an acapella group singing to Mary. This could be seen as a sort of black humor.

Kelley built his career on the idea where his art is available to the laziest viewer but there to the more sophisticated viewer as well. In doing so, he makes something beautiful by confusing terms and categories; thus, producing a sublime effect or humor. This is what separates his art from folk art. His work underlines the social function of art as a negative aesthetic. If it was not a negative aesthetic, then it would not be art.