the cremaster cycle
the cremaster cycle is a series of five filmsproduced by artist matthew barney between 1994 and 2002. for those new to the cremaster cycle, i highly recommend the official web site :
this is the book for those people who have seen and like the cremaster cycle. a super companion that gives very interesting background, and criticism of the cycle .
barney: the cremaster cycle”. nancy spector, curator of contemporary art at the guggenheim museum, moderates .
practically an encyclopedia on barney' s cremaster cycle. this is a huge book. fascinating .
matthew barney the cremaster cycle artbook | d. a. p. 2003 catalog guggenheim museum books exhibition catalogues 9780892072842
february 17, 2003 - solomon r. guggenheim museum - guggenheim museum spring programs / matthew barney: the cremaster cycle
the following two program series are presented concurrently with the guggenheim exhibition “matthew barney: the cremaster cycle” (february 21 – june 11) .
matthew barney’s the cremaster cycle will be shown in its entirety at the guggenheim on four select saturdays this summer. (photo: the guggenheim via facebook )
the cremaster cycle will open on friday, sept 3 at the music box theatre, showing through thursday, sept 9 for an exclusive one - week engagement .
· the cremaster cycle and a sculpture, cremaster field, are at the ritzy, london sw2, from october 25, presented by artangel. details: 020 - 7713 1402. the cremaster cycle, including a complete exhibition of related artworks by matthew barney, is at musée d' art moderne de la ville de paris until january 5. details: 00 33 1 53 67 40 00 .
cremaster 1, with the emblem between the blonde goddess’s legs. photograph: no info
“matthew barney: the cremaster cycle”: at the guggenheim museum, new york, until june 11th. catalogue published by harry n. abrams; 544 pages; $ 65 and £45
this is actually a series of 5 films. cremaster 1 (40 mins) released in 1995 cremaster 2 (79 mins) released in 1999 cremaster 3 (182 mins) released in 2002 cremaster 4 (42 mins) released in 1994 cremaster 5 (55 mins) released in 1995 (those dates are not typos) .
cremaster (titre original: the cremaster cycle) est un cycle de cinq films d' art réalisés par matthew barney. leurs durées varient de 41 min pour le plus court (cremaster 1) à plus de trois heures pour cremaster 3. les films sont nommés d' après le muscle crémaster. une grande richesse est apportée aux costumes, maquillages, décors, sculptures. la mise en scène énigmatique peut désarçonner le spectateur habitué à des formes plus conventionnelles d' art .
finn mccool and fingal fight at the end of cremaster 3. photograph: supplied
glorious union: barney and mullins at the end of cremaster 3. photograph: supplied
i' m so pleased with matthew barney' s cremaster cycle book. i was lucky enough to see this show in new york, it was truly a life changing experience .
as a conceptual model for the entire cycle, barney has chosen the sexual development of the human embryo. the movies are named after the cremaster muscle, which raises and lowers the testicles in the scrotum, and this slow process towards sexual differentiation during the first trimester of pregnancy is the basic “problem” of the five films. while the abstract, formal model for the cremaster cycle is thus the biological production of human beings, the non - human plays a more prominent role on the level of imagery. particular to the cremaster universe are a multitude of hybrid beings such as satyrs and other mythical beings, and this very profusion of animal species emphasizes the non - human ambiance of the cycle. likewise, we may understand the more “abject” sections of the cycle — the myriad of spectacular scenes with curious bodily orifices, prosthetics, and fluids, which cannot be given any closer determination — as an invocation and modification of the limits of the human. due also to the works’ impenetrability, the cremaster cycle is, in every possible way, a very alien universe. the hybridity of beings is a hallmark of the entire cycle, but since i am focusing in particular on relations between questions of humanity and notions of confinement, i shall restrict my analysis to cremaster 2, in which this problem is played out most prominently .
arguably some of the most elaborate and significant artworks of the 1990s, the cremaster cycle films employ a unique symbology and an indulgent, complicated approach to narrative that are each inherent to the barney’s practice. not to be missed !
spector, nancy. ”only the perverse fantasy can still save us. ” matthew barney: the cremaster cycle. nancy spector, ed. new york: guggenheim museum publications, 2002. 2 - 90 .
an experimental short film from the cremaster series which alludes to the position of the reproductive organs during the embryonic development process .
this is quite the most voluptuous book i have in my collection, from the translucent plastic overlay to the cut - away pages, the whole thing just adds up to an art object, even more than the comprehensive catalogue of the cremaster cycle that it is .
i was very disappointed when i finally got to view one of the famous cremaster films .
palm pictures customer service is telling callers that the full cremaster cycle won' t be released on dvd until 2004 (probably in the spring). they obviously don' t update their website very often ...
barney’s celebrated cremaster cycle is not now, nor will it ever be, available to consumers on dvd. the only place it can be seen is on screen in theaters, making this re - release a welcome return to true theatrical repertory programming. the last time the cycle toured nationally was in 2003 following the completion of cremaster 3. fans have now waited seven long years for another opportunity to see this extraordinary body of work .
4. surely, this sense of hermeticism also stems from the fact that the films are only seldom shown to the public and are exceedingly expensive to acquire. my concern here is with the thematic issue of inhumanity examined by cremaster 2 and i am thus not focusing my attention on the cycle as a particular aesthetic universe or on the institutional and financial structures of its production and reception. see keller and ward for a critical examination of the paradoxical mix of avant - garde and blockbuster strategies of the cycle. see also the official homepage for an impression of the universe of the cycle: urltoken .
originally posted by filmfansea palm pictures customer service is telling callers that the full cremaster cycle won' t be released on dvd until 2004 (probably in the spring). they obviously don' t update their website very often ...
has anyone heard of when the release date will be for the cremaser cycle? i was on the palm pictures web site, and there is no mention of it .
in conjunction with the current exhibition come as you are: art of the 1990s, the blanton is pleased to present a series of special screenings of matthew barney’s the cremaster cycle from march 15 - 19, during the week of sxsw. filmed out of sequence from 1994 to 2002, and produced in tandem with related sculptures, photographs, and drawings, cremaster takes its name from the male cremaster muscles, which regulate testicular contractions due to external stimuli such as temperature and arousal .
the cremaster is a muscle that raises and lowers the testicles. matthew barney uses the descension of the cremaser muscle as a metaphor for the appearance of male sexuality .
i think you are right. the order is an interesting release (still haven' t seen the multiangle) probably testing the waters a bit to see how the cremaster cycle will sell. although i don' t think money is at the heart of the matter for m. b. considering the way he gets money thrown at him by institutions like the guggenheim to make art. however palm pictures have a vested interest in these selling well. if they put the cycle out on dvd it will probably be an amazing set with lots of extras, as well as costly most likely. if you are really interested in his work the cremaster cycle is available as a hardcover book. it covers the entire cycle and is meant to be a companion piece to the films. as are the sculptures etc... i recommend picking this book up while it is still available, if you are really interested in the films .
i just rented the order from cremaster 3 from netflix - it' s about a half hour section from the cremaster 3 film, with director commentary. the commentary explains the meaning behind some of his wild images but says little about the actual filming and participants .
i never thought i would be one of those people slating something on amazon, but here goes! i have titled this review as a pointless release, pointless for me in that it is only a thirty minute extract from the end of the third part of the cremaster cycle .
alex: yes, that mantovani - style music … i feel as though it’s been tattooed on my brain after hearing it continuously for 40 minutes. like the music in the rest of the cycle it was composed by jonathan bepler, who pays homage to different styles from easy listening, like here, to grand opera in the next film, cremaster 5. cremaster 1 was a much less gnarly proposition than cremaster 4, which ended with some tumour - type thing being unpleasantly probed with needles .
cremaster 2 is a chapter in barney’s major work, the cremaster cycle (1994 - 2003), which is made up of five films: cremaster 1 - 5. in addition to the five feature length films, the cycle includes photographs, drawings, sculpture, and installations forming part of each of the five episodes. without attempting a proper synopsis of this complex film, it is nevertheless relevant to my discussion that barney takes up the myth in the gilmore family that harry houdini was in fact gary gilmore’s grandfather, with whom he identified a particular notion of freedom through self - transformation. in the film houdini is played by norman mailer, who in his the executioner’s song relates this family myth of kinship .
5. art historian and curator nancy spector gives the most thorough exposition of the expressions, effects, and recurrent themes in barney’s work; indeed, her analyses of the individual performances, installations, and films are indispensable for working with this strange universe. see spector for an interpretation of the overall issues in the cremaster cycle .
cremaster 2. matthew barney (dir .) new york: barbara gladstone, 1999. film .
filled with hundreds of matthew barney' s fantastical images, this comprehensive volume, which accompanies a major exhibition at the solomon r. guggenheim museum, surveys the popular artist' s cremaster cyclean epic five - part film project that uses the biological model of sexual difference as its conceptual departure point .
artist: matthew barney location: periodic screenings and dvds year created: 1994–2002 barney' s the cremaster cycle is more of an experience than an art piece. consisting of five feature length films with related sculptures, photographs, drawings, and artist' s books, it took mr. björk eight years to premier his project at the guggenheim. most people have a love / hate relationship with the piece because of its peculiar imagery. nonetheless, the cremaster cycle looks into the creation of form beyond biology with strange, yet stunning visuals. it' s hard to look away .
althought this stunning record of matthew barney' s astonishing cremaster cycle is probably best appreciated as a memento of the films themselves, it' s also possible to appreciate his incredible verve and imagination just from looking through these pages. a great document of a fascinating work of art .
jordan: with that sense of exhaustion we entered the three - hour cremaster 3, a movie which, under most circumstances, is its own endurance test. this was the film that put the whole cycle on the map for me, when it had something akin to a traditional run in 2003. it played at film forum in new york and i remember seeing the name on the marquee and, not knowing what a cremaster was, wondering why they’d be showing the third part of a horror franchise .
my point here is not that barney with cremaster 2 necessarily shares this idea of the convict representing the bravest and invincible segment of a generation. but barney’s preoccupation with gary gilmore and his imagined indefiniteness is indicative of the forcefulness and creativity held by the alien, the shapeless, and the inhuman in cremaster 2 and in barney’s work in general .
the cremaster cycle should be seen not just as a major american work of art but as a real piece of american cinema. it is in another league from the video and film installations that have become so central to contemporary art, which function, and only aspire to function, in museums, protected from the dirty mayhem of mainstream cinema .
a dialogue with the team that made matthew barney’s cremaster cycle possible. panelists: gabe bartalos, prosthetic makeup and special effects specialist; linda labelle, costume designer, weaver, and fiber - expert; matt wallin, digital effects specialist; matthew ryle, sculpture fabricator, and chelsea romersa, associate producer .
911 seattle media arts welcomes special effects artist and documentary filmmaker matthew wallin to its gallery with a presentation of material from the forthcoming film i die daily: the making of matthew barney' s cremaster cycle. the presentation will run through august 30 and features never - before - seen footage of matthew barney at work on the piece that inspired the new york times to call him
the most important artist of his generation .
in 1996, deeply intrigued by the work of barney, filmmaker matthew wallin abandoned a steady job to spend the next decade of his life documenting the making of barney' s epic 5 - part film, the cremaster cycle. what followed became a passionate exploration into the symbolism, mystery, and intricate process behind the cycle. the result of his endeavor, i die daily, will become the definitive document on the cremaster cycle as well as the most comprehensive study on the rise of barney as a star in the contemporary art world. the press and public are invited to meet filmmaker matthew wallin in an opening reception for the artist on friday july 18th from 6: 00pm - 10: 00pm, followed by an event to raise finishing funds for the film on saturday july 19th at 5pm. at the fundraiser, matthew wallin will screen 30 minutes of footage from the film, and will discuss his experience making the film with a slideshow of images. both the opening reception and the fundraiser will take place in the 911 media arts gallery. the exhibit is curated by misha neininger, executive director at 911 seattle media arts center .
as an artist, he harnesses an impressive narrative talent to a private world—half medical - research laboratory, half training camp—which he creates with the help of prosthetics, wrestling mats and sternal retractors coated in wax, vaseline and tapioca pudding. the show' s curator, nancy spector, describes mr barney' s cycle of films as a self - enclosed aesthetic system, and the project is rife with anatomical allusions to the position of the reproductive organs during the embryonic process of sexual differentiation. “cremaster 1” represents the most ascended, or undifferentiated, state; “cremaster 5” quite the opposite. the cycle returns over and over to those moments during sexual development when the outcome of the process is still unknown, and which represent in mr barney' s mind' s eye a state of pure potentiality .
the marathon screenings are being done in conjunction with the museum’s exhibition “ storylines: contemporary art at the guggenheim, ” featuring work from the permanent collection that explore storytelling. of course, mr. barney’s unconventional narrative, which can be interpreted differently depending on the order in which it’s viewed, was a shoe - in. the show opens today and runs through september 9. screenings for the cremaster cycle are free with museum admission .
the acclaimed five - part cremaster cycle is an evocation of the creative process by sculptor and performance artist matthew barney. although the five films were not created in chronological order, and each one comprises a completely realized work in itself, together and in numerical order they follow a geographical path from west to east and trace a metaphorical path toward fully developed form .
barney’s cremaster cycle sculptures share a common link in that they are derived from the multi - layered narratives of the project as a whole. panelists discuss how contemporary art incorporates narrative and fantasy. panelists: richard flood, chief curator, walker art center; molly nesbit, professor, vassar college; and louis neri, independent writer and curator .
alex: yes, i feel as though we’d had a pretty rare experience – especially as precious few of the people there with us at 10. 30am seemed to be there as we emerged over nine hours later. i felt absolutely exhausted afterwards – while i’m fairly sure i just let a lot of it wash over me, the cremaster cycle is challenging .
barney had plenty of stories to tell, and they were all eccentric. people began referring to him as the wagner of contemporary art because, like wagner, barney operated in a mythological language that seemed willfully irrational, and he had a plan for a cycle of works (the five'' cremaster'' films) that would take years to complete. the hubris alone seemed wagnerian .
from this conceptual point of departure barney creates epic, dramatic scenes that build off historical and biological models: a chorus line of dancers forming the outlines of reproductive organs on a football field (cremaster 1); a gothic western featuring line - dancing and a prison rodeo staged in a cast salt arena (cremaster 2); elaborate scenes of destruction and creation from new york’s chrysler building and the guggenheim’s frank lloyd wright building to the shores of the scottish hebrides, starring richard serra and aimee mullins (cremaster 3); musings on the notion of drive, featuring a motorbike race set on the isle of man (cremaster 4); and a lyric opera starring ursula andress complete with a baroque budapest opera house and hermaphroditic water fairies in a pool of pearl bubbles (cremaster 5) .
cinema and art have circled each other, squared up to each other, over the years, but only occasionally come together, as here, convincingly. at the heart of the cremaster cycle, halfway through cremaster 3, is a homage to dali and bunuel. we see a horse - and - trap race, gorgeously filmed in the early morning mists of saratoga springs racecourse in new york state. only gradually, close up, do we realise that the horses are putrefying carcasses, zombie horses, like the rotting donkey on top of a piano dragged across the floor by two priests in un chien andalou .
there are rumors of a cremaster cycle boxed set being released by palm pictures (and a
preview
of the box set, apparently a hoax, was posted on youtube) but as far as we know there are no plans for a general release of any of the cremaster films. there is a dvd available of the “order” sequence from cremaster 3, but this is not the entire film. you can find the order dvd at urltoken and other large retailers. from time to time, bootleg versions of barney' s videos surface, although he and gallerist / producer barbara gladstone have been quick to stop these unauthorized versions (see coments) .
hoist
, a short film by barney related to de lama lamina, was released on the destricted dvd. i’ve heard matthew barney’s work described as “film” and as “video” - - which is correct? the cremaster cycle was all shot on video, but the footage is transferred to 35mm film stock for projection. cremaster 4 was shot on beta sp, cremaster 1 and 5 were shot on digital betacam, cremaster 2 was shot on hdtv, and cremaster 3 was shot on 24p hdtv, a format that records video at 24 frames per second, the same speed that film is shot and projected. what is the “field emblem”? the field emblem - - a capsule bisected by a horizontal line - - appears in many of matthew barney' s films. because of its symmetry, it is used as a symbol for a state of equilibrium. at times, a “half field emblem” appears, representing a state where one option has gained dominance. the field emblem can also be read as a symbol of an orifice in both its open (the capsule) and closed (the line) states .
matthew barney’s epic film series the cremaster cycle pretty much made him a rock star in the art world. the five elaborate feature length films that comprise the work were made between 1994 and 2002, and named for the muscle that controls the male reproductive system. (the one that moves the gonads up and down in response to fear or fluctuating temperature .) rarely are the films shown together, in entirety, but this summer the guggenheim will give cremaster fans a rare chance to test their enduring love for the divisive work with a series of marathon saturday screenings on july 6, july 11, august 8, and september 5, from 10 a. m. through 7: 30 p. m .
as for the cremaster cycle itself, i’d never seen it other than in still images. my only engagement with barney’s work has been his great drawing restraint show at the serpentine gallery in london in 2007; i just missed his last film river of fundament in australia last year. so i was keen to get my hands dirty in the axle - grease and melted rubber of barney’s automobile obsession – which brings us to the first in the series .
cremaster 3: the concluding installment of artist matthew barney’s five - part cremaster film cycle is an epic journey that infuses celtic mysticism with 20th century modernism, blockbuster bombast with hermetic aesthetics. shot at two architectural landmarks–new york’s chrysler building and the guggenheim museum–along with locales in ireland, scotland and upstate new york, cremaster 3 follows the entered apprentice (barney) as he endures torture and travails in order to ascend each building. peopled by ogres and gangsters, chorus girls and freemasons, barney’s bizarre universe is never less than stunning. features appearances by sculptor richard serra, hardcore bands agnostic front and murphy’s law, and athlete aimee mullins. the film’s running time is 181 minutes. (usa, 2002 )
cremaster, as everyone remotely interested in barney quickly came to learn, is the name of the muscle that raises or lowers a man' s testicles in response to temperature. (the refrigerator in'' blind perineum'' - - the perineum is the tissue between the anus and the genitals - - was an early allusion to it .) working out of sequence, barney completed the first'' cremaster'' film,'' cremaster 4,'' in 1995. next came'' cremaster 1'' and'' cremaster 5.'' they were wordless, except for increasingly lavish soundtracks by jonathan bepler, a serious young composer from brooklyn whom barney came to rely on.'' cremaster 1'' was 40 minutes long; the others, longer. they were shown on video monitors, along with his sculptures, as part of elaborate installations, or sometimes they were screened by themselves in theaters. barney also sold the films as limited - edition laserdisks, which he elaborately packaged so that they became sculptures .
i reserve my whole judgement until i see the order in its context. until the whole of cremaster is released, avoid this dvd! i think barney is very cleverly getting people eager to see his cycle by refusing us the luxury of a complete dvd release. however, unless you are desperate to see some of it, don' t buy this. matthew barney, stop messing around and let honest people see the lot! !
yes, cremaster 3 had weirdness in spades. the lobby of the chrysler building becoming the site of a violent series of car crashes and then the tower itself turning into a giant maypole; the woman cutting potatoes up with her shoes (weird shoes being another strange piece of symbolism throughout the cycle); the final sequence where the irish giant finn maccool chased the scottish giant fingal from ireland, throwing a rock at him which turns into the isle of man, taking us back to the first film, cremaster 4; it’s so dense in symbolism that it’s impossible to see whether this is a system in its own right, or just an accretion of myths that make sense to barney alone. or is he just yanking our chains ?
if you have never seen the cremaster films or any of barney' s other works, this luxurious book may leave you a little bewildered. even if you have seen the films, you may still be a little bewildered, or, at least, dazzled. this is quite the most voluptuous book i have in my collection, from the translucent plastic overlay to the cut - away pages, the whole thing just adds up to an art object, even more than the comprehensive catalogue of the cremaster cycle that it is. the photography is perfect, the colours and reproductions superb and the layout invites you to spend hours looking. the texts at the back and front are very short but informative. i also have several of the individual books which went with the films and exhibitions, but none of them approach this book in oppulence .
very useful book for writing an academic paper on the cremaster cycle that includes a lot of attention to barney' s autobiographical reasons for why the cycle was created where and how he intended, as well as some lovely full - colour posed photo stills that i have yet to find in online image databases. great supplement to viewing the entirety of the films, but no substitution to seeing the work itself (as any good film - based work should be). i highly recommend this particular piece of documentation to anyone looking for further insight on barney' s creative process (or a
sparks notes
for the content of the individual films) as well as anyone writing on this intense, expansive, and complex work .
i too am looking forward to seeing this get released but suspect it' s still a way off especially as order: cremaster 3 has just been released on dvd recently so i suspect they will try to get' mileage' with this before they release the whole cycle. palm pictures have that that release date listed for months and certainly don' t update their website that often .
this, the first in barney' s five - part cremaster cycle of films (but the second made; the cycle is not numbered in chronological order), blends the choreography of a busby berkeley musical placed in an off - kilter context, and in so doing reminded me of the coen brothers' movies, with the slow - paced weirdness of early david lynch. none of the cremaster films employ dialogue - - they are essentially visual / aural experiences. this one suffers badly from poor cinematography, on several occasions being just on the edge of going out of focus. of course, that might have been intentional. moreover, the print i viewed was in bad shape even though it was advertised as being
brand new .
if it was, then the master it was made from must be in a sorry state indeed. there is no plot to speak of; after all, this is an
art
film, so one just has to sit back and enjoy the imagery. how one interprets it is purely subjective, of course, although the overriding emphasis on genitalia and reproduction is impossible to miss. i consider this the weakest film in the cycle, but fortunately it is relatively brief at forty minutes. rating: 5 / 10 .
set in new york city and narrating the construction of the chrysler building, which is itself a character: the host to inner, antagonistic forces at play for access to the process of (spiritual) transcendence. these forces take form in the struggle between hiram abiff or the architect (played by richard serra), and the entered apprentice (played by barney), who are both working on the building while reenacting scenes from masonic mythology. the film pauses midway for a choric interlude which rehearses the initiation rites of the masonic fraternity through allegorical representations of the five - part cremaster cycle, all staged in the guggenheim museum. features aimee mullins as the entered novitiate. (182 min. )
the troubling thing is that the cremaster cycle' s layers of myth don' t add up. they are mutually contradictory. you could (if you were mad enough) follow each line of thought and produce a single reading of the series of films and accompanying sculptures and photographs, but that is beside the point. barney' s aesthetic is one of overload. there are simply too many images, too many ransackings of history and religion, to digest .
this is possibly the biggest book you' ll ever own, i' m talking bigger than yellow pages. for that reason it was delivered to my door in a bright green sack. i found this only added to the whole cremaster experience. if you' ve seen the films this is a must; but would probably be lost on anyone who hasn' t. it is the largest art work i have ever seen and it' s influence on me just goes on. barney is great! the book is a work in it' s self, printed so beautifully it takes you right back to the awe and wonder. buy it! worship matthew barney and tremble before the glory of the cremaster cycle .
only the last section of cremaster 3... from the busby berkeley dancing lambs of the first degree to the fifth degree and richard serra' s re - enactment of his lead flinging work using warm vaseline you will not have seen anything quite like this. even as a part of the cremaster cycle it is a revelation - except that i may never understand what it reveals exactly. the image of the' the order' or entered apprentice (somehow having been transformed from the first entered apprentice having his teeth smashed out with an ornamental horses bit at the race track / in the chrysler building and the teeth being transformed through his disemboweled rectum) standing on the podium with an altered' bear skin' hat and a face stuffed full of linen towel (or apron ?) will haunt me forever. it is an image fest so saturated in barneys mythology that it should be nauseating - but it just isn' t. maybe i' m giving too much away? a box set of the whole cycle? god, lets hope not. their limited availability serves to keep them unique .
it’s fair to say that for two decades now the american performance artist, film maker and sculptor matthew barney has been one of the most influential artists in the world. his global reputation really started in 1994 with the first of five films in his cremaster cycle, an imaginative tour de force in which a cast of characters that included a tap dancing faun with floppy ears, more than one professional dominatrix, harry houdini and a notorious murderer, acted out the biological process by which sexual differentiation takes place in the human embryo .
the cremaster cycle is somewhere in between a traditional film and an art installation. it isn’t too easy divining a plot, but each entry offers a great deal of “business” to follow, usually oddly dressed characters trying to accomplish some sort of strange task. this can range from chopping up a room full of raw potatoes with bladed shoes to a kit of pigeons bringing a man’s penis to erection with ribbons .
i don' t think they' re testing the waters. i could be wrong but i believe the deal to release the order was in place with lion' s gate before palm announced they were releasing the whole cycle. since palm is also the theatrical distributor, and the theatrical release was very successful and extended through the winter, they' re probably holding off releasing the dvds until it' s out of theaters .
alex: the cremaster cycle is named after the muscle that controls the height of the testicles; i’m sure every man has noticed its operation when swimming in a cold sea (or less pleasantly, getting socked in the balls). according to the sheet we got at the screening, the numbers of the films correspond to “the height of the gonads during the embryonic process of sexual differentiation” – one is the least descended, five the most. this was number four and it was a pretty male experience – all that racing around the isle of man (the name probably significant too); the closeups on leather - clad crotches and burly fairies. the film opened with barney, playing the satyr with prothetic ears and nose, carefully combing fire - engine red hair over some raised, rather anus - like protuberances, before crashing through a hole in the pier and into the sea – where he kept tapdancing on the sea bed .
ok, it' s weird. but the cremaster cycle is much more than a pose or a series of eye - popping images. it is beautiful, disturbing, of our time, aspiring to be eternal, sensually in love with the textures of modernity - plastics, synthetics, nylon - yet longing for the ancient mythic resonance of honey, beeswax, salt and ice. it is cinema, sculpture and performance, and it is a significant work of art .
parts of'' cremaster 2'' are laugh - out - loud silly, intentionally or not, but mostly the film is dark, the colors dense, the images kaleidoscopic and solemn - - beginning with an image of a saddle, which segues into a frozen landscape that mirrors the saddle' s form, later becoming the film' s best special effect: a recreation, with choir, of the mormon tabernacle. if you' ve seen a few other barney films, you begin to spot familiar images - - the women on horseback at the salt arena echo the dancers in'' cremaster 1''; the inside of gilmore' s car is like the tunnel in'' cremaster 4'' - - and these recurrent motifs create an incantatory effect .
he cremaster cycle by matthew barney is the first truly great piece of cinema to be made in a fine art context since dali and bunuel filmed un chien andalou in 1929. it is one of the most imaginative and brilliant achievements in the history of avant - garde cinema. it really is avant - garde, with scarcely any dialogue and a tottering megastructure of myth and symbol, from mormonism to masonic ritual to celtic legend. but it' s not like those artists' films you sit through because you should, nor is it is only fun when projected as a zany installation. the five films - particularly the most recent, cremaster 2 and 3 - are in a class and a universe of their own. as norman mailer, who appears in cremaster 2, said after seeing it :
i enjoyed it. how could you not enjoy it ?
as noted above, it is a common observation that the freedom of the human is what makes it human. in cremaster 2, barney has, however, employed the figures of the convict, the escape artist, and some memorably ”non - animal” animals to complicate the ways in which we tend to employ captivity as framework when imagining the in - and non - human. if we were to understand, as i will suggest, houdini’s last words in cremaster 2 as a poetological mission statement for barney, we might say that cremaster 2 is an experiment in altering the common conceptions about the human’s humanity in much the same way as houdini treats his captivity. for barney, houdini and his escape artistry are then not merely a way of showing that human life always entails both limitations and attempts at escaping those limitations. houdini’s role in cremaster 2 is also to make visible how we continuously produce the human, the inhuman, and the animal, in an on - going negotiation of confinement and freedom .
alex: i thought the rubber thing emerging from barney’s backside was his prolapsed guts after the evil freemasons forced the compacted chrysler imperial (which in turn carried the corpse of gary gilmore, now turned into a woman) into his mouth as he sat half - naked in a dentist’s chair? fortunately the goo from his intestines became a strange sausage - shaped life force which allowed him to get up and progress to the next stage of the cycle – the climb up the balconies of the guggenheim in his guise of the entered apprentice .
i have had a quick surf to find out barney' s reasons for releasing this extract, but have not yet found the answer. i unfortunately missed screenings of the entire cycle (twice !) and would still love to watch it in its entirety. all i have to say about the order is ...
art is supposed to stick in your mind, and sometimes your craw. barney' s films do both. in the end, the'' cremaster'' cycle can be seen as an allegory of the creative process itself, with sexual identity as a metaphor within it, but not the only metaphor.'' i' ve begun to see the five parts differently,'' barney says at the end of our conversations, in his office at the studio, surrounded by plans for the next'' cremaster.'''' i' ve begun to see them in terms of having an idea in' 1,' rejecting it in' 2,' experiencing a kind of narcissistic interlude in' 3,' panicking in' 4' and resolving the idea in' 5,' which ultimately kills the thing .
but i came to think that barney, the actor, is only what you see on screen; he is not necessarily the subject of his work, a distinction worth making with someone for whom the body is a flexible metaphor. in fact,'' cremaster 2'' doesn' t really have much to do with gender or sexual identity in the end. if it is at all autobiographical, it is in a different sense. the west is represented by the isolation and insularity of the mormon hive. barney, the boy from boise, left the west for new york and a life as an artist. he once described boise to me as'' a valley full of pressure, the pressure of that wall of mountains combined with the great distances between places: it was something to overcome.'''' cremaster 3,'' the next and last film to be completed in the cycle, will take place in manhattan .
okay, i just got my hands on the order dvd and i have to say it' s pretty neat. it' s really modeled after the exhibit shown in the guggenheim. it has the option of viewing this section of the movie as it appears in cremaster 3 or viewing the individual degrees separately as displayed in the guggenheim installation. i have to say, it' s really really cool, but now i want the cycle on dvd more than ever. i was this close to getting it on bootleg when i heard there would be a legit version coming out. please. . if anyone here knows anything about the release of this box set, share .
'' cremaster 2,'' his first feature on high - definition television, transferred to 35 - millimeter film, at 79 minutes, is by far his most extensive undertaking. peter strietmann, his cameraman, told me that he shot 17 minutes of tape for every minute used, a ratio far beyond barney' s previous norm. (the ratio for'' cremaster 4'' was 1 to 1; for'' cremaster 5,'' 7 to 1 .) big - budget hollywood movies average 12 to 1. barney can afford to be extravagant because his operation is otherwise extraordinarily lean. the total cost of'' cremaster 2,'' a ravishing and extremely peculiar picture, was $ 1. 7 million .
de lama lâmina premiere! by invitation of the local afro - brazilian carnival club cortejo afro, artist matthew barney and musician arto lindsay paraded with their own trio - elétrico on the night of february 22, 2004 as part of the carnaval de salvador da bahia, brazil. providing barney a self - described “detox” after the highly controlled world of the cremaster cycle, the musical trio, entitled de lama lâmina (“of mud a blade”), integrated the cortejo afro percussion group with hundreds of dancers as well as guest percussionists and carnival singers and paraded along the beach circuit near the old center of town. the work was staged as a performance, but scripted and filmed for later exhibition. the film’s running time is 55 minutes .
click safari in the menu bar at the top of the screen, then preferences .
architectural metaphor is also an important element of “cremaster 3”, the last of the cycle to be shot. the longest—at nearly three hours—and most accomplished of the five films, it takes place mainly in new york' s chrysler building and the guggenheim museum itself. at one point, five 1967 chrysler imperials encircle a 1930 model of the same car in the chrysler building' s lobby, then drive into and smash the older model to pieces, the lobby filling with smoke from their squealing tyres. meanwhile, mr barney, as a character known as the entered apprentice, climbs into the building' s lift shaft and fills one lift, bucket by bucket, with cement, creating an ashlar—a masonic symbol of perfection— that eventually causes the lift to plummet to the bottom of the shaft. for this betrayal of the masonic code, the entered apprentice is fitted with a set of metal dentures retrieved from the remains of the destroyed chrysler imperial .
i asked him one afternoon an obvious question, whether the'' cremaster'' series is on some level about his own sexuality.'' sure, it has to do with my own identity,'' he answered. he uses a particular medical analogy: in utero, there' s a period when a person' s sex is still indeterminate, the fetus seeming to have the potential to be either sex, before the testes have descended or the ovaries settled. plenty of images in his films and many of his sculptures imply body parts that relate to this theme - - the goal posts on the football field in'' cremaster 1'' are schematic versions of the still - undifferentiated reproductive system; motorcyclists on the isle of man in'' cremaster 4'' trace ascending and descending paths.'' cremaster 5'' ends with a scene in which barney' s character' s testicles descend into a pool of water .
the tableaux were created for “river of fundament, ” a movie almost six hours long that is the most ambitious undertaking by mr. barney since the “cremaster” cycle, the symbol - saturated films made beginning in the mid - 1990s that established him as one of the most important artists of his generation. as with those films and much of his work since the early days of his career, the new film functions on its own but also as a dynamo for spawning, shaping and superimposing meaning onto a body of sculpture. that body, about 85 works and more than seven years in the making, is on display for the first time in the united states, at the museum of contemporary art in los angeles. the exhibition opened sept. 13 and is to be the only american stop for the work, shown first in munich and hobart, tasmania .
first, this is fantastic news! i will be counting down the days to see it on the big - screen. . second, i guess he would rather people enjoy the fuzzy, low - quality bootlegs of
the cremaster cycle
( which are now easily attainable), rather than release them in all their true glory, with great sound and visuals on dvd? ugh. c' mon, mr. barney! hell, they' re even up on youtube right now! okay, i' m done ranting. : )
the five “cremaster” films that form the core of the guggenheim exhibition take their name from the testicular muscle that responds to temperature, external stimuli or fear. the erotic and the athletic have always come together in mr barney' s universe, though his explorations of it are now bigger, better financed and more elaborate than they were a decade ago .
matthew barney is perhaps the most brilliant artist of our time and yet also the most elusive. this comprehensive catalogue of the cremaster cycle, his stunningly ambitious and multi - faceted narrative based on the descent of the gonad cells, tries to explain clearly both the narrative itself (nancy spector) and provide a glossary (nevill wakefield) on the diverse symbolism in the works from tt bike racing and tap dancing to freemasonry and hard - edge punk rock. a treat is to see barney' s working sketches, story cards and polaroids which belie the obscurism he is often accused of. this is a wonderful, rich and accessibile catalogue for admirers of barney and anyone interested in real contemporary art .
in 1995, when the new york times first reviewed of one of artist matthew barney’s cremaster cycle films, his indulgent and elaborate five - part film epic, critic michael kimmelman asked, “what’s the idea? who knows for certain, besides mr. barney? maybe if you squint hard enough, you can read into the film some abstract fertility ritual… it’s frustrating and prolix, but also alarming and amusing. it has an elaborate and opaque symbolism, involving ancient myths… which mr. barney has adapted to his own mysterious purposes. ”
it’s a shame that there’s no easy way to see certain parts of the cycle again, as i’d definitely like to return to some of the films one day – particularly 3, the centrepiece. i guess the fact that it’s a massive, slightly macho labour is part of the concept though – lots of the work it about the will to power and the clash between nature and society – or in our case, falling asleep or leaving to go out in the sunshine versus wrapping your head around a nine - hour art film.
the cremaster cycle is a series of five feature-length films , together with related sculptures , photographs , drawings , and artist 's books , created by american visual artist and filmmaker matthew barney . the cremaster cycle was made over a period of eight years ( 1994 – 2002 ) and culminated in a major museum exhibition organized by nancy spector of the solomon r. guggenheim museum in new york city , which traveled to the museum ludwig in cologne and the musée d'art moderne in paris from 2002-03 . barney 's longtime collaborator jonathan bepler composed and arranged the soundtracks for the films . 
the cremaster cycle is a series of five feature-length films, together with related sculptures, photographs, drawings, and artist's books, created by american visual artist and filmmaker matthew barney. the cremaster cycle was made over a period of eight years (1994 – 2002) and culminated in a major museum exhibition organized by nancy spector of the solomon r. guggenheim museum in new york city, which traveled to the museum ludwig in cologne and the musée d'art moderne in paris from 2002-03. barney's longtime collaborator jonathan bepler composed and arranged the soundtracks for the films.
the cremaster cycle is a series of five feature-length films, together with related sculptures, photographs, drawings, and artist's books, created by american visual artist and filmmaker matthew barney. the cremaster cycle was made over a period of eight years (1994 – 2002) and culminated in a major museum exhibition organized by nancy spector of the solomon r. guggenheim museum in new york city, which traveled to the museum ludwig in cologne and the musée d'art moderne in paris from 2002-03. barney's longtime collaborator jonathan bepler composed and arranged the soundtracks for the films.