Review: Mike Kelley, Exploded Fortress of Solitude

A jewel-encrusted grotto. A translucent alien cityscape, glowing pink in a bell jar. Sculptural depictions of Superman’s birthplace Kandor: what’s not to like?

Despite the total destruction of the planet Krypton, Kandor would survive – shrunk and bottled – in Superman’s care, its miniature citizens sustained only by tanks of atmosphere. Kelley has explored the diverse representations of this city-in-a-bottle, transferring the visual language of the two-dimensional comic into monumental, high-production-value 3D sculpture, with dark and foreboding foamy boulders, stark monolithic gas canisters, and clean, colour-saturated skylines.

Rendered in this manner, the Kandors become eerily illuminated reliquaries, instantly evoking grief-stricken public war memorials. What’s more, we are afforded a disturbing glimpse into the stagnant life of Kandor, Kelley’s film ‘Vice Anglais’ depicting a group of a sadistic perverts remorselessly whipping the naked buttocks of a virginal bride. This is a startling counterpoint to the traditional heroism of Superman – an agent bound to protect the honour of such women. Kandor has been preserved: but at what moral cost?

[Review by Thomas Keane]