ECTOPLASM PHOTOGRAPH 13 (1978-2009)
FOCUS
France-Paris
What is this sprawling face emerging from the darkness photographed by Mike Kelley in a series of fifteen chromogenic prints entitled “Ectoplasm Photograph”? A face in trance, exuding a cottony substance – ectoplasmic – from its orifices; that of the artist himself, transformed into a spiritual medium. Inspired by the spiritualist photography of the late 19th century, this image of formlessness testifies to a supernatural conception of the artist as a seer capable of communicating with the beyond. “Occult rituals interest me because they are akin to artistic creation,” said the American artist who died in 2012, to whom the Bourse de Commerce, in association with London’s Tate Modern, Düsseldorf’s Kunstsammlung and Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, is devoting a retrospective entitled “Ghost and Spirit” as part of its new “American Mythology” season
“MIKE KELLEY, Ghost and Spirit”
October 13, 2023 – February 19, 2024