Stopgap Measures

Stopgap Measures presents an exciting selection of essays,interviews and shorter pieces on the work of American artistMike Kelley (1954-2012) written over more than threedecades by the noted art historian and cultural critic JohnC. Welchman.Kelley's provocative career gave rise to some of the mostconceptually and materially diverse work of recent times-in performance, writing, painting, drawing, sculpture, banners,multimedia installation, appropriated objects andimages and video, as well as numereous collaborations.This volume includes reflections on specific works, and featuresa signature series of pathbreaking essays on Kelley'sinnovations in photography and writing as well as explorationsof major themes in his practice, research and thinking:physical comedy and verbal humor; memory; popularculture, dress-up and Americana; the uncanny; imaginativeprojection and dark fantasy; appropriation and giving;authorship and self-construction; and the artist's littleremarkedupon negotiation with the histories of and ideasabout Asia. The book concludes with new essays on Kelley'sengagement with animals and the nonhuman; and on therefrain disappearances that punctuate Kelley's career setin relation to specters of social catastrophe and nuclearannihilation.