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organization Artangel, 6 and from that point thework took a new turn in its journey by transforminginto a public project. Once the work hadbeen commissioned, MOCAD came on board toassist in bringing the project to the city ofDetroit. Marsha Miro, acting director of MOCADat the time, regards the project as a means for thecommunity to become involved in a work of artand as a way for an artwork to become part of acommunity. 7 It is intriguing that Kelley becameso engaged with the Mobile Homestead project,as he had expressed an unyielding opinion thatpublic works were unsatisfactory, a view hemade clear in his essay on Mobile Homestead,stating, “Public art is a pleasure that is forcedupon a public that, in most cases, finds no pleasurein it.” 8 Regardless of Kelley’s initial misgivingsabout the potential success of the work, asignificant accomplishment of Mobile Homesteadis that it buttresses a new social realm inKelley’s often privatized oeuvre.Mobile Homestead represents both an importanttransition and fulfilling culmination ofKelley’s work, which for more than 35 years traverseddrawing, painting, sculpture, installation,video, and performance. His range of media wasvaried, yet the implications of Kelley’s personalexperiences with coming of age in a workingclassfamily in Detroit resonate deeply anddarkly throughout his portfolio. Works such asthe architectural model Educational Complex(1995) and the film drama Extracurricular ActivityProjective Reconstruction #1 (Domestic Scene)(2000), included in Kelley’s retrospective at theStedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, are prime examplesof his investigations into chilhood memoriesand issues of identity. The exhibition encapsulatesKelley’s visual explorations with issues offamily, class struggle, and the inner workings ofthe psyche, which seem to culminate in MobileHomestead, and, like much of his work, challengesviewers to look beyond the popular cultureparaphernalia presented and to put asidethe feelings of sentimentality typically associatedwith the innocence of youth, to consider theeffects of repression, suffering, and loss that areintimately tied to childhood and adolescence.Kelley’s works resonate universally with one’sown secret inner childhood dreams, nightmares,and desires by presenting the familiar in unexpectedways and by articulating the hauntinglyveiled visual cues of suppressed memories.Although Kelley never intended for MobileHomestead to act in any way as a shrine to hisupbringing, family, or life, nor to have a resonatingsentiment attached to it, one almost can’tavoid experiencing feelings of nostalgia uponviewing this work. Perhaps Mobile Homesteadwould yield different reactions if the fact werenot offered as public knowledge that it re-createsthe façade and floor plan of Kelley’s childhoodhome. This knowledge forces us, however, toinvestigate the work through a set of preconceivednotions of what home means to us andultimately to Kelley, as the specificity of the decisionto replicate this particular home suggests adirect correlation between his life and work.Mobile Homestead oscillates between familiarityand function to re-envision a site of public andprivate purpose. Unlike homes featured in livinghistory museums—particularly GreenfieldVillage at The Henry Ford, a metro Detroit attraction9 —we are not given a view of what life waslike for Kelley through display of objects or historicalcontext. Instead we are presented withINSIDE FRONT COVER: Mike Kelley, Mobile Homestead, 2010–ongoing, mixed media, 13 1/2 x 44 1/2 x 8 feet [courtesy of Kelley Studio and MOCAD, Detroit] / OPPOSITE, LEFT TO RIGHT:Mike Kelley, video still from Mobile Homestead: Going East on Michigan Avenue from Westland to Downtown Detroit, 2010–2011, three videos running time approx. 3.5 hours total; video stillfrom Mobile Homestead: Going West on Michigan Avenue from Downtown Detroit to Westland, 2010-2011, three videos running time approx. 3.5 hours total / ABOVE: Mike Kelley, MobileHomestead parked in front of the original Kelley home on Palmer Road, Westland, Michigan, 2010 [photo: Corine Vermuelen; courtesy of MOCAD]ARTPAPERS.ORG 11