Matthew Barney's Indifferences

Matthew Barney

Creating the Cremaster films, Matthew Barney shows athleticism, sexuality, and an appreciation of the human form, which might be disturbing to most that watch his films.  His films gained attention to his artistic career through the beauty and horror involving surreal scenes and symbolism.  The films are a “physical state,” which he blurs the line of genders through objects and subject matter.  However, videos are not the only thing he creates.  His line of work also consists of sculpture, performance, drawings, and installation pieces where he develops these ideas out of his Long Island City, Queens studio.  With the use of sounds, shapes, and places, he is influenced by Process Art, which can be seen in Eva Hesse and Robert Smithson, and Joseph Beuys work.  Barney says, “My work is not for everyone,” but can be subjective to the viewers that appreciate the diverse indifference of Barney’s creativity.

The Loughton Candidate, Cremaster 4

In Cremaster 4, the first part of the five-cycle series starting in 1994, he depicts and plays The Loughton Candidate, which portrays a cusp undergoing the stages of maturity.  Barney uses horns to symbolize growth of sexual maturity as male/female figure.  Another form of symbolism, a “Field Emblem” outlined like a football stadium, is presented throughout all the films.  Furthermore, the performance of dancing and sounds give the film a theatrical setting; however the scenes are shot for eight hours in length and in real time.  In addition to the performance, the famous Greek pose, contrapposto, shows power by deferring action.  All of these films seem hard to understand and/or follow, but the spectator can interpret the meaning from their own imaginations, any other artwork we see in society.

Drawing Restraint 9 Movie Poster

Since Barney collaborates with other artist, musician Bjork composed a musical element to his Drawing Restraint series.  An example, Drawing Restraint 9, Barney creates a full-feature film and scenes include a tea ceremony, whaling ship, sex and the making of sculpture.  He’s a mythical character with multiple personalities and his love interest with Bjork.  In the poster, it shows a Japanese theme representing flip sides (moods) of the characters, showing Bjork’s head turned away and the sculpture of Barney.  The story takes many turns, and the destination is to set south to Antarctica, and oddly enough, Bjork and Barney morph into whales and swim off to the oceans they sail.  Furthermore, Japanese workers pump out of liquid petroleum jelly from a truck, resulting into a whaling ship that originally came from his “Field logo.”

Bjork in Drawing Restraint 9

Recently, River of Fundament is Barney’s inspiration from the novel, Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer, which the subject matter includes American Cars focus is based on a 1967 Chrysler Imperial.  The film is five hours in length and contains lots of hot polluted liquids from New York and Detroit rivers.  River of Fundament is about Egyptian myth and modern America portraying the death of reincarnation of the novelist and sex.  Since the production of this project as taken seven years to develop, Barney says, “We couldn’t really afford to rehearse,” due to the subjective nature of the location settings.