Mike Kelley’s Day Is Done at PICA

Mike Kelley, “Day Is Done” (2007). Film still. COurtesy Mike Kelley Studios.

The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art is showing Mike Kelley’s new work Day Is Done as part of selection of films put together with the Northwest Film Center.  The program coincides with the Time-Based Festival, PICA’s annual convergence of contemporary performance, dance, music, new media and visual arts projects in Portland, Oregon.

The feature-length musical restages carnavalesque productions weaved into a surrealist narrative that examines subcultures via photographs found in high school yearbooks and small town newspapers.  Using these “found” sources, Kelley (Season 1) investigates the folk pageantry and rituals around dress-up days, religious spectacles, fashion shows, singles’ mixers and musical follies.

Day Is Done will be screened at the Portland Museum of Art. For full creening schedule in September, check the PICA website.