Skip to main content
Washington University in St. Louis
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Create an account to add artworks to your personal collections.

Enter your email address below to recieve an email to reset your password.

An email has been sent to your inbox to reset your password.

image alt

Mike Kelley

Untitled #1

1994

image alt
1 / 1

This sleek metal plaque in an ovular shape, derived from the outlines of a UFO, contains an amorphous oozing creature with tentacles and a human eye. In the 1990s multimedia artist Mike Kelley created critical works based on a confrontation of the ugly, the worthless, and the tragic. To Kelley, excrement, waste, and the deformed human body—epitomized by the alien creature depicted here—represent society’s self-abasement and self-loathing. In his 1997 essay on ufology (the study of UFOs), Kelley wrote: “Ufology pictures an aesthetic collision between a housing structure, the UFO, and an alien element that inhabits this house, in an uncommon aesthetic mixture of the abject and the technological.” In Untitled #1 the combination of a sleek exterior and an unformed, menacing interior may address repressed inadmissible desires or predilections. [Permanent collection label, 2016]

  • Artist Mike Kelley (American, 1954–2012)
  • Title Untitled #1
  • Date 1994
  • Medium Enamel on aluminum
  • Dimensions unframed | 66 5/8 x 46 5/8 x 1 3/4 in.
  • Credit line Gift of Peter Norton, 2015
  • Object number 45.2015

Rotation 2: Contemporary Art from the Peter Norton Gift
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/11/2015 - 10/19/2015

Received 3/23/2015
Peter Norton (Los Angeles, CA)

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

Related Content

go to House and Home page
2020_0004.tif
Theme

House and Home

go to Rotation 2: Contemporary Art from the Peter Norton Gift page
no image
Exhibitions

Rotation 2: Contemporary Art from the Peter Norton Gift

September 11, 2015 - October 19, 2015

Image Reproduction Request Form

To request image materials and/or permission to reproduce a work of art from the Museum's collection, please complete and submit the form below. The information you provide here will enable us to process your request and assess the appropriate images, permissions, and any applicable fees. 

Typically, image requests that do not require new photography can be completed within three weeks. Whenever possible, rush orders may be accommodated, although additional fees may apply.

If you have questions, please contact Kristin Good, associate registrar, at kristin.good@wustl.edu.

Checking this box constitutes a legal signature. By checking this box, the applicant agrees to abide by all terms and conditions under which permission is granted to reproduce works of art in the collection of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, and that permission is contingent upon payment of any applicable fees.

* Required fields

test View details