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Eviscerated Corpse

A work made of found stuffed cloth toys.

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  • A work made of found stuffed cloth toys.

Date:

1989

Artist:

Mike Kelley
American, 1954–2012

About this artwork

Mike Kelley’s work takes pleasure in perversion and embraces bad taste. Many of his early sculptures employ secondhand dolls and stuffed animals. Used, soiled, and discarded, Kelley’s toys violate the sentimental association of youth with innocence. Eviscerated Corpse, from his series Half a Man, is one of the artist’s bestknown objects. Its cartoonish horror presents childhood as pathology: dolls and stuffed animals lack sexual specificity, which perhaps reflects the desire of adults to maintain the chastity of children. Kelley said that “the stuffed animal is a pseudo-child, a cutified sexless being which represents the adult’s perfect model of a child—a neutered pet.” His icon of childhood is a hypersexualized monster, with the tiny doll either spilling its intestines, giving birth, or both.

Status

On loan to Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Germany) in Düsseldorf for Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Mike Kelley

Title

Eviscerated Corpse

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1989

Medium

Found stuffed cloth toys

Dimensions

Dimensions vary with installation: 167.7 × 198.2 × 292.1 cm (66 × 78 × 115 in.); 167.7 × 198.2 × 292.1 cm (66 × 78 × 115 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Lannan Foundation

Reference Number

1997.147

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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