Description

Paulina Pobocha provides an in-depth look at Kelley's radically complex sculptural installation

From the mid-1970s until his death, Mike Kelley (1954-2012) produced some of the most challenging art of his time. Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites (1991/1999) is an immersive installation featuring brightly colored stuffed animals sewn together into large, irregularly shaped spheres that hang from the ceiling, accompanied by 10 vibrantly hued abstract fiberglass sculptures that periodically release a pine-scented mist into the air. Among Kelley's most ambitious sculptures, it is a culmination of the artist's years-long investigation into the empathic relationships we form with inanimate objects. In this volume of the MoMA One on One series, an essay by curator Paulina Pobocha considers this singular artwork within the context of Kelley's fearless, transformative and oftentimes unsettling art.