Mike Kelley's 'Foul Perfection' Collects Critical Writings

A volume of Mike Kelley's writings, 'Foul Perfection: Essays and Criticism', edited by John C. Welchman, has been published. The book compiles Kelley's critical texts and essays on artists from 1985 to 2002, organized chronologically. Kelley's writing explores the concept of the Uncanny, rooted in Freud's 1919 essay, and examines American subculture, rejecting high/low culture distinctions. The collection includes essays on artists such as Öyvind Fahlström, Cody Choi, Marcel Broodthaers, John Miller, Douglas Huebler, David Askevold, Survival Research Laboratories, and Paul Thek. Kelley's analysis of Paul Thek's 'Death and Transfiguration' addresses beauty as a weapon and counter-culture. The book also features an interview with Thomas McEvilley, 'From the Sublime to the Uncanny', where Kelley discusses his definition of the sublime in relation to Longinus, Kant, and Barnett Newman. The volume is published in the US with no French translation yet available.