Freudian narratives, violence, aesthetic order, and the nature of creation. These are the themes that have preoccupied artist Matthew Barney for years.
“ I consider all the things that I work with attractive to me, weather they repulse me or not, I am very attracted to them,” Said Barney in an INTERVIEW.
His five part epic, the Cremaster Cycle, created between the years of 1995 and 2002, derives its title from the muscle that raises and lowers the testes according to temperature, external stimulation and fear. The series is being screened in its entirety at the Guggenheim Museum, as it is not available for purchase (except for 20 collectors editions that sold for $100,000 each). While a clear narrative isn’t present in the films, it seems to be an aestheticized exploration of the American drive towards consumption and a sculptural exploration of the life cycle and the process of sexual differentiation that occurs within the body. ”Violence is sublimated in to form somehow, that’s what the work is about,” says Barney.
The first installment of the Cremaster Cycle takes place inside of two Goodyear blimps that hover perpetually over an idealized football stadium (Barney got a Yale football scholarship). From there, the Cycle goes on to be an exploration of power and violence as channeled through sculptural and aesthetic forms involving a broad and unlikely cast of characters, many of which Barney played himself, including Harry Houdini, Norman Mailer, and the murderer Garry Gilmore. Each of these characters seems to be attempting to achieve some bizarre task, whether that be using a bladed shoe to chop a room full of raw potatoes or a getting an erection from pigeons carrying ribbons.
Within his work every shot is metaphorical, and contributes in some way to Barney’s alluringly complex idea of narrative, but can also stand alone on its aesthetic perfection and complexity.
“The way that I deal with narrative isn’t exactly linear. Sometimes it involves feeling something, sometimes it involves presence – in the way that sculpture has presence,” said Barney in an interview.
Barney’s work is worth consideration at the vary least for its audacity and attention to detail. His exploration of American conceptions of power, industry, and violence – in synchronization with the biological story of male sexual differentiation – makes the Cremaster Cycle read like a complex exploration of what it means to be socialized as a man in America. Be prepared to digest it in multiple sittings though, as the Cycle in it’s entirety is 9 hours long.
Matthew Barney (1967) is an American artist who works in sculpture, photography, drawing and film. He was born in San Francisco and moved to Idaho at the age of six. When his parents divorced, his mother moved to New York City to pursue her career as a painter. Matthew stayed in Idaho, but visits with his mother in New York were his first introduction to the art world. Barney’s most recent work, River of Fundament, takes the form of a seven act opera and is loosely based on Norman Mailer’s novel Ancient Evenings. Barney is also well known for his relationship with the singer, Björk.
