Bio
Kelley A Meister is an interdisciplinary artist whose work combines drawing, video, and performance into installations and stand-alone films. Kelley’s work has been shown around the country and abroad in galleries, theatres, film festivals, libraries, infoshops, squats, collective houses, online, outside, and in the streets. Hir work has been supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. Ze was a founding member of BenchPress Burlesque, a radical multi-gendered, sex-positive, queer-positive, feminist political performance troupe. Ze is also one-third of the experimental multimedia performance trio Wreck Family Productions. A commitment to social, racial, environmental, and economic justice is a through line in Kelley’s work.
Kelley also works as a teaching artist in schools, libraries, museums/cultural production centers, and community centers throughout Minnesota with COMPAS and the Science Museum of Minnesota. Ze teaches stop-motion animation, documentary and narrative filmmaking, digital photography, computer game design, circuitry, screenprinting, and more.
Kelley also works as a teaching artist in schools, libraries, museums/cultural production centers, and community centers throughout Minnesota with COMPAS and the Science Museum of Minnesota. Ze teaches stop-motion animation, documentary and narrative filmmaking, digital photography, computer game design, circuitry, screenprinting, and more.
Artist Statement
My body of work employs the use of drawing, sculpture, and time-based media to investigate and call attention to this moment in geological history where the planet is shifted by the indelible touch of humans. My work on this topic is centered on a search for empathy. Empathy for those whose lives have been irreversibly impacted by climate change, war, famine, and other challenges.
I am drawn to the rigor of scientific observation of the world around us, and as a queer artist, I choose to infuse this observation with the emotional responses that come up rather than stifle them to present a neutral position. My work interrogates the cultural acceptance of our trajectory and raises questions about our effects on our ecosystems and future generations. Who will suffer most from the intensifying heat and rising sea levels? How will we maintain nuclear waste repositories tens of thousands of years into the future? Where will future bombs be dropped?
My current artistic practice digs into an exploration of what constitutes a landscape. I am interested in the natural and social ecosystems of environments – both as a means of exploration of artistic material and as a means of public engagement. Further, I am concerned with how humans impact our environments, in micro and macro ways, historically, currently, and in future possibilities.
At the core of my creative process is a practice of embodiment and making intuitive choices. I employ vigorous, in-depth research that encompasses site-visits, interviews, and archival examination. My research also includes inquiry and process experiments in the studio, through audience interaction and participation, and through performances for the camera that capture embodiment and emotional expression. I am interested in the ways in which the creation of art parallels and deviates from the collection of scientific data.
I am drawn to the rigor of scientific observation of the world around us, and as a queer artist, I choose to infuse this observation with the emotional responses that come up rather than stifle them to present a neutral position. My work interrogates the cultural acceptance of our trajectory and raises questions about our effects on our ecosystems and future generations. Who will suffer most from the intensifying heat and rising sea levels? How will we maintain nuclear waste repositories tens of thousands of years into the future? Where will future bombs be dropped?
My current artistic practice digs into an exploration of what constitutes a landscape. I am interested in the natural and social ecosystems of environments – both as a means of exploration of artistic material and as a means of public engagement. Further, I am concerned with how humans impact our environments, in micro and macro ways, historically, currently, and in future possibilities.
At the core of my creative process is a practice of embodiment and making intuitive choices. I employ vigorous, in-depth research that encompasses site-visits, interviews, and archival examination. My research also includes inquiry and process experiments in the studio, through audience interaction and participation, and through performances for the camera that capture embodiment and emotional expression. I am interested in the ways in which the creation of art parallels and deviates from the collection of scientific data.