Tate Film and Artangel present the Mobile Homestead videos, part of Mike Kelley’s last major project, a public commission for his native city of Detroit based on a life-sized replica of his family’s suburban home.
The videos document the homestead’s journey from downtown Detroit to the Kelleys’ original home in Westland and back again, alongside interviews with an array of local residents, including bikers, church officials, strippers, social workers and used car salesmen.
Going West on Michigan Avenue from Downtown Detroit to Westland
Mike Kelley, USA, 2010–11, 76 min
The first of the Mobile Homestead videos follows a full-size replica of Kelley’s family house front as it travels from downtown Detroit to its original location in suburban Westland, encountering and documenting urban decay and deep socio-economic disparities along the way.
Going East on Michigan Avenue from Westland to Downtown Detroit
Mike Kelley, USA 2010–11, 76 min
In the second part of the documentary, the Mobile Homestead journeys back to its final location in downtown Detroit, outside the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), as interviews with local residents cast a bleak but revelatory picture of life in the Midwest.
