Mike's Box

For five decades, Michael Smith’s performance art has inhabited bland domestic spaces, mass media and its promise to keep us company and failing business ventures that misread the moment. Through art installations, theater, video, television and live performances, Smith’s comedic work lives inside the identity models that both constitute and disassociate our shared experience. His two performance personae, Mike and Baby Ikki, plumb the depths of American and culture to perform the discrepancies between what is promulgated by controlling interest and what actually exists in the reality of our day-to-day worlds. MIKE’S BOX is an immersive 8-disc DVD collection of his work up until now, including the complete collaborative video work of Smith with both Joshua White and Doug Skinner, collaborations with William Wegman, Seth Price, Mike Kelley and many others. It is accompanied by a richly illustrated book with an essay by Tim Griffin, featuring documentation from shows exhibited at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Museo Jumex, along with filmed conversations between the artist, curators and collaborators.

MIKE'S BOX includes 8 DVDs along with a 128-page booklet packaged in a printed slipcase. 

—Drag City

Co-published by Drag City and ARTPIX.

Read more about each disc here.