Mike Kelley: Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites

This latest volume in the MoMA One on One series focuses on Mike Kelley’s Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites (1991/1999).

From the mid-1970s until his death in 2012, Mike Kelley produced some of the most challenging art of his time. Central to his artistic endeavors was a desire to plumb the American psyche in an attempt to reveal all which had been repressed, not only personally but also culturally. Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites (1991/1999) is an immersive installation featuring brightly colored stuffed animals that have been sewn together into large, irregularly-shaped spheres which hang directly from the ceiling, accompanied by ten vibrantly hued, abstract fiberglass sculptures installed on the walls along the perimeter of the gallery that periodically releasing a pine-scented mist into the air. The work not only overwhelms the senses, but also confounds the mind. Among Kelley’s most ambitious works, it is a culmination of the artist’s years-long investigation into the empathic relationships we form with inanimate objects. An essay by curator Paulina Pobocha provides an in-depth look at this singular artwork and contextualizes it within Kelley’s deeply complex and at times unsettling artistic practice.