All Photos By Gail
In 1987, American artist Mike Kelley (1954 –2012), known for his provocative and often unsettling artworks exploring themes of American popular culture, childhood, and trauma, began to make sculptures from stuffed animals. Kelley described the toys as “the adult’s perfect model of a child”– cute, clean, sexless.” However, Kelley’s plush toys, purchased secondhand from thrift stores and yard sales, were discarded and soiled from use. Seemingly beyond redemption, they are darkly humorous monuments to lost innocence and repressed emotions.
Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites (1991–99) was among Kelley’s last works to feature stuffed animals. This immersive installation consists of a large, amorphous sculpture resembling a colorful, abstracted landscape — the Central Mass –made from stuffed animals sewn together. The sculpture is then suspended from the ceiling, giving it a floating or hovering appearance.
The Satellites in the work’s title refer to 13 smaller, cellular sculptures grouped by color, that orbit the Central Mass, further enhancing the surreal and otherworldly atmosphere of the installation. To avoid eliciting an emotional or sentimental response from viewers, Kelley sewed all the animals face-in.
The Satellites are surrounded by 10 brightly-colored, abstract Deodorizer sculptures on the gallery walls, which release a pine scented mist into the air. By contrasting the degraded consequences of consumer excess with a slick, reductive forms of modernism, Kelley taunts the hierarchies between high art and mainstream culture, between obsessive hygiene and moral decline.
Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites is a significant example of the late artist’s ability to subvert familiar objects and imagery to provoke deeper questions about cultural values and societal norms. It has been exhibited in various galleries and museums around the world, contributing to Kelley’s reputation as one of the most influential artists of his generation.
Photographed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
