Kelley’s 28-minute video project pieced together a character study of the Banana Man, a character from the children’s television show “Captain Kangaroo.” Having never watched the Banana Man himself, Kelley enlisted his childhood friends to recount their memories of him, memories which were weaved together into a fragmented narrative.

Writes Kelley: “This is my only truly solo video project. The tape is an exploration of character and was done in direct reaction to my performance work at the time, which was characterless. Video seemed a good way, by virtue of it not operating in ‘real’ time, of dealing with character and psychological motivation. ‘The Banana Man’ was a minor figure on a children’s television show I watched in my youth. I, myself, never saw this performer. Everything I know about him was told to me by my friends. The Banana Man is an attempt at constructing the psychology of the character — problematized by the fact that the character is already a fictional one, and by the fact that none of my observations were direct ones.”