MIKE KELLEY, 1954-2012

MOCAD is devastated to learn of the death of honored and valued artist Mike Kelley. His importance and generosity to Detroit, his birthplace, and to MOCAD, where he was working on a major project, cannot be overestimated. We will remember an impish, deeply thoughtful and provocative man whose art embraced all sides of the human psyche. Rest in peace, Mike. Rest in peace.

Photo Credit: Mike Kelley, Mobile Homestead, 2010. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Corine Vermeulen.

Image courtesy the artists
February 10-April 29, 2012
Joshua White and Gary Panter’s Light Show

Joshua White and Gary Panter’s Light Show is a new exhibition organized especially for the Museum by two great pioneers of multimedia art. White and Panter have been working together since the late 1990s, and this exhibition is their largest collaborative project to date.

Occupying nearly all of the Museum’s 22,000 square foot area, this immersive installation features a “permanent” light show designed by White (of Woodstock and Fillmore East fame) that will be on view through the entirety of the exhibition’s run. Panter, whose prolific output is most recognized in the set design for Pee-wee’s Playhouse, will construct a funhouse of his imagination. Bridging these two worlds is a historical corridor, filled with ephemera illuminating their long-running careers. Materials from the archives of both artists will be on display to illustrate the range and depth of their work.

As intended by White and Panter, the exhibition will serve as a platform for performances by guests working in a variety of media and disciplines, including musicians, video artists, comedians and engineers, who are invited to interact with the work and activate the space.

Joshua White and Gary Panter's Light Show is supported by a generous grant from The Taubman Foundation.

Additional funding for the exhibition and related programs is provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Masco Corporation Foundation, McGregor Fund and Edith S. Briskin/Shirley K. Schlafer Foundation.

OPENING NIGHT
Friday, February 10
Opening: 6PM-8PM, Free
Performances: 8PM, $8 | Free for members
Adult. with special guests White Car and Monster Island

Electronic "Dance Punk" group Adult. will perform live in Detroit for the first time in two-and-a-half years and MOCAD is proud to be the space in which they land. Adult. was conceived of in 1998 with Nicola Kuperus upon the demise of partner Adam Lee Miller's pioneering dance duo Le Car. Together the two created a stunning clash of electro, punk, and techno music that would become the de facto sound of the coming generation. They launched the progressive indie label Ersatz Audio to release their own work alongside the work of other forward-looking acts of the time, such as Magas, Tamion 12 Inch, Goldchains, Electronicat, and more. Over the past few years the Detroit-based duo has taken a long hiatus from live performance to concentrate on making art and on creating their own cinematic universe with their film Decampment. On the cusp of a new year Adult. is once again ready to emerge having produced bold new material to perform in celebration of MOCAD's newest exhibition.

Joining them on this very special night will be LA-based electro-dance band White Car. White Car are a duo born and bred Chicago, specializing in industrial / no-wave pop. Sinister, whispered vocals and disorienting beats, underpinned by strong structures, are blended in order to create minimal and disjointed pop music simultaneously referencing Nitzer Ebb, Depeche Mode, Detroit Techno, Italo-Disco, dark alleys and uncomfortable encounters.

Beginning the night at 7PM, performing in Joshua White and Gary Panter's Light Show, will be Detroit's own Monster Island. An every- evolving psyche-folk collective headed by former Destroy All Monsters founder Cary Loren, Monster Island began in 1995 performing their first concert at Detroit's Krishna Temple. The group is not a band in the conventional sense. Instead the collective is a variant on the idea of the living theater -- a changing social/political landscape of folk, religious & street rituals derived from themes and topics that enhance psychedelic experience, resistance and subversive behavior. The group is deeply influenced by Voudou, Island myths, Antonin Artaud, psychics, puppetry, paleocybernetics, comic books, tribal chanting and a mixture folk and popular art forms.

For more information on Adult. visit their website
http://www.adultperiod.com/

For more information on White Car visit their website
http://www.white-car.net/

For more information on Monster Island visit their Myspace page http://www.myspace.com/monsterisland13

ARTIST TALK
Saturday, February 11, 1PM
Joshua White
Admission: Free

Artist Joshua White will speak about the history of his traveling light show. The Joshua Light Show members were resident artists at Fillmore East and performed live behind many major musical artists of the 1960s: Frank Zappa, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Doors, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix. Currently, Joshua White works with fellow artist Gary Panter recreating the legendary light show at numerous venues including The Anthology Film Archives; in the exhibition, Visual Music: Synesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900, organized by the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C.; at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Tate, Liverpool; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and with the artist Bec Stupac at The Kitchen, New York.

For more information on Joshua White and the Joshua Light Show visit http://joshualightshow.com/about_joshua.html

POP-UP RESTAURANT
Sunday, February 12, 1PM-3PM
Detroit Brunch
Admission: $30/person

Join Detroit Brunch, a vegan pop-up restaurant, for a five-course meal designed around locally sourced, organic foods. Communal seating sets the platform for this interactive brunch. Looking ahead, don't miss out on Detroit Brunch's seasonal line of Valentine's Day treats, offered only at MOCAD on February 12! Limited seating, reservations required: DetroitBrunch.com

Museum Tours
Wednesdays at 1pm and Saturdays at 1pm & 4pm
All MOCAD tours are free and open to the public

Museum Hours
Wednesday, Saturday, & Sunday: 11 - 5 pm
Thursday & Friday: 11 - 8 pm
closed Monday & Tuesday

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