Who Is IOZ?: Waiting for Superman

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Waiting for Superman

Artist Mike Kelley has passed away at his home in Los Angeles, having apparently taken his own life. The tragic news was confirmed to BLOUIN ARTINFO by Helene Winer, of New York's Metro Pictures gallery, a long-time associate of the artist. "It is totally shocking that someone would decide to do this, someone who has success and renown and options," said Winer. "It's extremely sad." She added that the artist had been depressed. -ArtInfo

I met Mike Kelley once, ever-so-briefly, at the last Carnegie International, in which he had a prominent installation. He seemed like a nice enough guy, and certainly very smart. I made out with one of his installers, actually. In any case, if he was depressed despite his "success and renown," then I will suggest it is because he realized that he was a fraud; his art mere fashion; any and all talent which he seemed actually to have had burned up for naught--his soul quite literally sacrificed to the demonic pantheon of the self-regarding artworld illiterati. I'd kill myself too if I suddenly found myself a muppet making crafts for rich suckers looking to blow their wads at Gagosian.

51 comments:

Anonymous said...: Man, get some fucking class.; 5:00 PM
Anonymous said...: why? that mothafucker is dead now; 5:04 PM
Eerily Lackadaisical said...: Now we know your beau never reads here - either that or he gets off on the fact that he's hooked-up with such a slut ...; 5:43 PM
Eerily Lackadaisical said...: Or do you two have an open whatever?; 5:43 PM
Eerily Lackadaisical said...: That must be it - that's why you blogged a few days ago that you're sympathetic to crackpot rightists - you UNDERSTAND that Newt had needs ...; 5:45 PM
Anonymous said...: I was lost in rumination earlier, thinking of the misery of mankind and the desserts it might occasion, but then grew more despondent thinking such desserts will probably never come to pass. And so I resolved that an imagination more finely honed in misanthropy might provide some relief, that somewhere, surely, a thought had been expressed evincing such wanton malevolence as to make my irritation pale in comparison.

And so, I clicked over to whoisioz.blogspot.com, and all my hopes were surpassed. Thank you, Monsieur.; 5:50 PM
Jeff in Texas said...: Whoa. Harsh man.; 6:24 PM
Jack Crow said...: I don't know, Anons. Seems like a paean to the man, to me.; 6:31 PM
what the Tee Vee taught said...: So... you're saying, in the realm of artists and their suicides, he's no Ray Johnson; 8:54 PM
rob payne said...: Sounds like an honest critique to me. I’ve seen that kind of stuff in museums and it just doesn’t do anything for me. Does art have to shock you or evoke some kind of reaction? I guess I’m more impressed with art that is the result of skill and a sense of design but each to his or her own I suppose. I think one thing that enables really good artists, musicians etc. to be good is an ability to be honest with themselves over their own ability and work because without that you’re just kidding yourself.; 9:31 PM
Anonymous said...: Or maybe he was just depressed because people sometimes get depressed. I'm not much of a Kelley fan, but it seems obvious that you don't know or care about his work and are just using his death as an opportunity to lash out at the "art world." Fine, whatever; contemporary art is mostly stupid. But let's not pretend that you have any idea what Kelley was trying to accomplish and whether or not he was a fraud or muppet. And 'making crafts for rich suckers looking to blow their wads' sounds like a pretty sweet fucking gig.; 10:19 PM
Illuminowski said...: What kind of Shibboleth are you? Are you trying to challenge some kind of notions or something? whoisupercilious.unctuous.com; 10:26 PM
High Arka said...: So essentially, if your blogging started paying off, you'd off yourself? Say it ain't so!

Or is this one missing another level of times four super sub-irony? It's been known to happen.; 1:20 AM
Anonymous said...: You are rather dim. Have a great life.; 1:26 AM
High Arka said...: This one, or IOZ?

I want a great life! Pick me!; 1:50 AM
NutellaonToast said...: "making crafts for rich suckers looking to blow their wads"

It's a little known fact that the original Sistine Chapel was painted on the underside of a bridge...; 2:13 AM
rob payne said...: Chapels are usually three dimensional therefore making it difficult to paint them on the underside of a bridge. Now frescos are pretty much two dimensional so you might have something there. Of course if they had painted a chapel (though an impossibility) on the underside of a bridge it would be the cistern chapel instead of the Sistine Chapel. At any rate Kelly ain’t no Michelangelo.; 3:31 AM
High Arka said...: @Nutella, yes, most artists remembered by mainstream history are nothing but that; the best ones, who weren't willing to sell out their talents and souls to religious this or lordly that, are vanished.

The question then is, does recognition--current or historical--hold the only value?

Or, is this all a game? At the end, will everyone on the A-list and in your 8th grade history text end up in Hell, and everyone who refused to sully the world go to Heaven? Maybe Kelley realized the truth and redeemed himself at the very end. Suicide as art, a la Hide.

If you end up in Hell, your punishment is an endless lecture series chaired by Jackson Pollock, in which great thinkers explain why Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings and military blueprints were the crux of human civilization at the time.; 7:29 AM
Gabe Ruth said...: Completely off topic, but I found this story surreal:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16836065

"Another confidential Swedish police report, obtained by the BBC, underlines just how lucrative the business is for the gangs. Their 'conservative calculation' suggests criminal gangs are making about £3m in a year from what the report calls 'black labour'. "

Ironic, no?

"'That physically fit British men can be threatened or coerced into working without pay and living in fear for their safety reflects the brutal reality of modern slavery,' he says."

"The project manager of human trafficking at the European law enforcement agency, Europol, believes there have been dozens of British victims."

Dozens of cases??? Why, that project needs a new manager. Somebody like Newt Gingrich.

In other news from BBC:

"Germany's meteorology institute allows the sponsorship of weather systems...

The Munich-based advertising agency said it was no longer commenting on the unfortunate correlation between the progress of the severe weather and the car it sought to publicise...

In a statement, the carmaker said it could not influence exactly when names for weather fronts would be used, or what a weather system would do."

What can one say to this? Perhaps BHO should take over BMW. Doesn't he have some control over the weather?; 8:19 AM
davidly said...: Yow! Would Herr Monsieur be Statler or Waldorf?; 9:46 AM
Sorry said...: That early Flaming Lips stuff was good, then they turned into muppets.; 10:16 AM
Eerily Lackadaisical said...: Well, we now know we're all racist - not a comment from M'sieur or any of us about the suicide of Don Cornelius ...; 11:09 AM
la Rana said...: He was surely Guess to Alexander McQueen, but I gotta go with Nony, making crafts for rich suckers looking to blow their wads sounds like a pretty sweet fucking gig. Sounds like you're begrudging this man's scam, yo.; 11:18 AM
puppylander said...: maybe mistaking a man's principles for the man.

that is, we (humans) are what we are. our needs (phys., psych., life-affirming, fulfillment) are not ours to choose, rather, imposed by reality. for this ("successful")artist (and many "successful" people), suicide may be the natural result of the emptiness of an unfulfilled/ incomplete life.

when life is too easy (when success comes too easily), you can sense (at a visceral level) that you do not deserve what you have. that is, you don't appreciate, so you self-loathe, so you self-destroy.

only to suggest it could be that it's not a matter of personal principles as it is a matter of personhood.; 11:30 AM
puppylander said...: (not the only outcome. sociopathy, perhaps, prevents that visceral reaction. such that, easy life viewed deserved regardless > narcissism, egomania, etc.); 11:53 AM
Anonymous said...: Literally.; 12:24 PM
Jack Crow said...: puppylander,

There's something to what you're saying. Self-destruction is a luxury, for many if not most.; 12:34 PM
puppylander said...: j.c., thanks.

it's interesting. i find myself seeing the "life too easy" >> suicide connection more than i see a "life too hard" >> suicide connection.

i'm trying to figure out why that should be true. could be sampling. personally don't know any suicides. the ones i hear about are only the "notables" ("successful" people). i assume, however, that it's a highly skewed sample.; 12:51 PM
Jack Crow said...: Pet theory: when life is hard(er), you struggle. Struggle engages. It shapes memory. Obviously some people get beat by circumstances, and opt out in a moment, or more slowly over time. But, in order to make ends meet, you have to try. Trying to get food in the belly, keep a roof over our head, help your kids make it to adulthood while snatching a few moments of pleasure, or at least rest, is trying to stay alive. Perhaps it's harder to check out when everything in the brain case is focused on staying in.

I think of TE Lawrence. Spent years trying to stay alive under sometimes uniquely hostile circumstances. Came home to England to die real close to home on a road he knew well in a stupid, careless, lazy accident, once he had nothing to live for or struggle against anymore.; 12:59 PM
puppylander said...: ok. here's a spitball...

when life's too easy, it's not easy to see where the problem is. so the resolution turns inward.

when life's too hard, it's still not easy to see where the problem (really) is, but it's easy to blame the world. (that is, "life too hard" = getting [bad] shit that you feel you don't deserve.) so the emotion turns outward. instead of destroying yourself, you destroy what's around you.

i'd be curious to see how this stacks up with reality.; 1:02 PM
puppylander said...: yes, j.c. i think you're hitting pretty close to the mark (to explain why those who struggle don't off themselves).

but struggle is human, so it makes sense that being busy with ordinary challenges doesn't lead to self-destruction...

what has me puzzled is when struggle becomes overwhelming. to me, there's a part that seems to think that that, too, is rationale for suicide. and yet, not so sure that's what happens.

i think my experience is informed more by the poor kids in my life not cutting themselves, but rather lashing out at people/things around them. or, brain closes off and compartmentalizes (insanity).

my sense (again, no experience) is that the cutting, pill-popping finality is up the social strat.; 1:10 PM
Colin Gray said...: Jesus ever loving Christ are you an asshole.; 1:55 PM
demize! said...: If he an heroed because the burden of making kitsch for the ritsch was to great than he truly was an artist at heart. YMMV.; 4:05 PM
NutellaonToast said...: Couldn't it also just be possible that he was depressed because there was something wrong with his brain, which is the most complicated and delicate organ in our bodies? Or something.

Maybe modern art is the only thing that's meaningless.; 4:07 PM
Love said...: At the very least you deserve a hefty flick in the forehead for this one. Or a slap in the old noggin with la douche.; 4:35 PM
Anonymous said...: Is this post the equanimity or the compassion?; 6:33 PM
Anonymous said...: Is that what this is a picture of?; 6:57 PM
Alexander said...: That early Flaming Lips stuff was good, then they turned into muppets.

Early?! The Soft Bulletin was their ninth album!; 5:39 AM
Anonymous said...: Hitchensian !; 9:20 AM
Leonard said...: It is impressive how many of y'all are so conventional. "Don't speak ill of the dead." Why not? I mean if you're there, consoling the widow or something, that's one thing. Presumably then the Christian injunction to Be Nice trumps the imperative to truth. But this here Chez IOZ is the Internet, bitches, where everyone can be a dog and we expect pissing on the carpet. Now I'd never heard of this Kelley guy, so I went and googled to see his "art". IOZ is right: it's crap. A degenerate artist spawned by a degenerate culture.

That said, nobody suicides over being a crappy artist, not if the world is telling him he's deep. "Depression" -- chemical imbalance in the brain. Pity we can't automate the damn things.; 10:33 AM
demize! said...: @9:20 We come to mock Cesar, not to praise him.; 1:52 PM
Anonymous said...: Demize. C'mon, one meets the famous, cavorts in thier circle, sniffs hypocricy and skewers them, that's hitchensian. Except Hitch took some risks, here at the 'fealty forum' the worst I,OZ. can expect is a tsk tsk from eerliy lackadasical, good god don't you wish he were more lacksadasical.; 2:17 PM
demize! said...: If by "risks" you mean being a mouthpiece for the highest echelons of elite power, than I suppose. I find him less fetid as a corpse.; 2:21 PM
Anonymous said...: Leonard: It might be because of this: "Is this post the equanimity or the compassion?"

IOZ is a right hypocrite. He decries the death of innocent anonymous folks--blathering about compassion, loving-kindness, and equanimity (which is all well and good if you actually mean it)--and then says, "The guy seemed nice, although I understand why he killed himself because he suxors!" Actions of body, speech, and mind have various consequences.; 2:33 PM
High Arka said...: Leonard, Kelley was an attempt at the automated brain. The attempt failed; recognizing his work as worthless resulted in his death. A lot of people quite healthily recognize that their professions are worthless, but if they believe that they have a great worth, then suddenly pass by an epiphany, they may result in what happened to Kelley.

Your deathlust for the automated brain will slay us all. Or worse, automate us. So here's the joke: Leonard, Henry Ford and Hitler were lost at sea in a lifeboat, and--

okay, won't finish it.; 11:57 PM
Michael Doane said...: Done with you, IOZ. You are witty but only marginally human. Ciao.

Michael Doane; 10:05 AM
Anonymous said...: Demize. I meant it the old fashioned way; standing behind what you believe in regardless of where it leaves you in relation to power. There's nothing fetid about his corpse anyhow, he left it to science.; 10:18 AM
puppylander said...: "'Depression' -- chemical imbalance in the brain."

so of course just conjecture/ speculation, but whence comes any chemical imbalance? (not suggesting that "chemical imbalance" is incorrect, just that the explanatory power there is kinda weak [i.e., unhelpful/ useless?].)

to my own hypotheses... i'm reminded of an npr interview a couple weeks ago about pharma. our minds/bodies are, in a way, walking pharmacies. that is, when you think about the drugs that work, they work because our bodies have receptors. if the receptors exist, then the counterparts exist (moreover, they must exist naturally in our bodies).

i'm reminded also of jordan peterson, discussing human states of mind. basically, when we're confronted with a big, hairy truth that doesn't match up with our understanding of the world, we're thrown into a kind of chaos. we no longer know what we thought we knew. we actually "feel" off-balance.

so i wonder, are these related? a psychosomatic-something-or-other. and if it works in the one direction, could it work in the other?

not to push tom cruise and scientology or any religion at all, but rather, the ability to reconcile honestly one's own understanding versus external signals manifests in actual chemical changes in the body. (sorta like, being in a state of danger, then recognizing that the rustling in the bushes is not a dangerous animal but a plastic bag. wave of relief passes over your body as adrenaline levels normalize, etc.); 11:51 AM
puppylander said...: explanatory power being: kelley's told he's deep and influential by the art community. kelley himself doesn't buy it (shares the same view of his "work" as a few here--i.e., "um, it's not genius or anything"). yet, handsomely compensated.

how to reconcile? we could "think up" any number of ways, but maybe he couldn't--at least, nothing that felt honest. that is, the problem of deep reconciation. (the rationales that seem like they should work [conscious level], but somehow don't ring true [subconscious level].); 12:00 PM
antonello said...: Have to agree that the theory of "saw himself a fraud and offed himself" (perhaps while humming Is That All There Is?) is merely precious. A more plausible explanation: there are people who were unhappy long before they were successful and found that success didn't resolve their dilemmas.

Suicides among the acclaimed are just as likely to be those who do good work but somehow can't convince themselves they're any good. They're not frauds, but they feel like they are. The greater your conscience, the more you will torture yourself, as Freud had warned us. Honest-to-god frauds, by contrast, snore contentedly in their beds.

If Kelley was no good (I wouldn't dispute this), it's unlikely he had an epiphany to that effect. Bad work is done with as much conviction as the good; more so, actually. Nor would he have been disillusioned to see his work gobbled up by the glitterati. Artists have often been scathing about their patrons; I've yet to hear of one becoming suicidally unhappy as a result.; 12:03 PM
High Arka said...: The only way to truly excel at duckspeak is to understand duckspeak, which is itself thoughtcrime. The highest members of the Party will, therefore, always be those who are constantly guilty of thoughtcrime, for without seeing what's really going on, they could never keep selling the con so well, over and over.

Which is why Obama pwns all of you, in addition to being one of the most wholly terrible entities ever to have slithered his way across the human scene. Bush's honest, violent stupidity can't ever compare to Obama's serpentine loathsomeness.

What may have crushed Kelley, and so many other unseeing participants, is the belief that they're living in a semblance of justice--which belief is ever troubled by nagging little doubts. Once you pull too hard on a string and begin to see the facade, you may be unable to reconcile the horror, and find that it's time to step out.

Or, you might just start a pseudonymous blog.; 2:40 PM

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Waiting for Superman

51 comments:

Axis Mundi

About Me

Hypocrites Lecteurs, Semblables, et Frères

Archive