{"id":38219,"date":"2016-09-23T17:51:10","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T15:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=38219"},"modified":"2016-09-23T17:51:10","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T15:51:10","slug":"mary-reid-kelley-patrick-kelley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/mary-reid-kelley-patrick-kelley\/","title":{"rendered":"The Artist Couple Making\u00a0Video Art with Myths, Suicide and RnB"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Mary Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley. Image by Alexander Coggin<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not often that artists are inspired by a\u00a0combination of Ancient Rome, Victorian\u00a0literature and Nicki Minaj. Yet American\u00a0artists Mary Reid Kelley and her husband\u00a0Patrick Kelley deftly blend these\u00a0range of influences to create films that are\u00a0witty, dark and striking. Between 2013\u00a0and 2015 the duo created the rich, poetry-\u00a0based world of \u201cThe Minotaur Trilogy\u201d,\u00a0and their most recent film, \u201cThis is\u00a0Offal\u201d won the Baloise Prize at this year\u2019s\u00a0Art Basel, while Mary just got awarded a MacArthur \u201cGenius Grant\u201d. Intrigued by their weird collection\u00a0of inspirations, SLEEK tracked\u00a0the duo down during a performance of\u00a0this award-winning show at the Berliner\u00a0Festspiele, and asked them how they come\u00a0up with their punny titles.<\/p>\n

SLEEK: Your work is clearly influenced by\u00a0many different things. How do you choose\u00a0which ones to begin with?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mary Reid Kelley: They often come out\u00a0of an unresolved issue in one of previous\u00a0works. The theme of This is Offal\u00a0is suicide, which was also a present in\u00a0The Minotaur Trilogy, itself based upon\u00a0the myth of the Minotaur from antiquity.\u00a0There are many different versions of\u00a0this story, but the one I found the most\u00a0plausible was the one in which Ariadne\u00a0hangs herself after she wakes up in the\u00a0Minotaur\u2019s labyrinth. At the time I was\u00a0interested in family disappointment and\u00a0the delusions of sex and love, and it became\u00a0the seed for This is Offal, a consideration\u00a0of female suicide in literature.<\/p>\n

It seems to be somewhat of a theme: Jocasta\u00a0and Antigone in the myth of Oedipus, and\u00a0Ophelia in Hamlet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mary: Yes, and the Minotaur myth\u00a0brought me back to \u201cThe Bridge of Sighs\u201d\u00a0by Thomas Hood [a 19th century English\u00a0poet and humourist].<\/p>\n

\"Mary Mary Reid Kelley. Backstage before performance, Berliner Festspiele, 2016. Image by Alexander Coggin<\/p>\n

Is he the reason for all the word plays in\u00a0your titles like \u201cYou Make Me Iliad\u201d and\u00a0\u201cSadie the Saddest Sadist\u201d?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mary: Hood was a comic genius who\u00a0wrote brilliant poems with extremely\u00a0macabre puns. In this poem he\u2019s addressing\u00a0London, asking the city what\u00a0it\u2019s done to this young woman who has\u00a0jumped off a bridge.<\/p>\n

Patrick: And, of course, the woman is\u00a0mute\u2026<\/p>\n

Mary: Which is a recurring trope in\u00a019th century literature. Poe believed\u00a0that the death of a young, beautiful\u00a0woman was the best subject for poetry,\u00a0so I wanted to create a counterpoint to\u00a0this where the woman comes back and\u00a0isn\u2019t silenced by men. Being silent is the\u00a0ultimate in decorum, but in This is Offal,\u00a0the female protagonist is rude, vain,\u00a0and a show off \u2013 but she\u2019s also speaking\u00a0for herself.<\/p>\n