In 1991, the New York art world was wowed by the first solo exhibition of an artist who, at the age of 24, had already lived the lives of a football player, J. Crew model and Yale pre-med student before turning to the studio.
These prior roles figured prominently in his artwork: a series of oddly luminous, life-size sculptures of athletic equipment (barbells and such) molded entirely from chilled Vaseline, and a performance, witnessed by the audience via video, of the handsome, athletic and naked artist testing his physical prowess by repeatedly ascending and descending the walls of a room, using intricate climbing equipment, and plugging a bodily orifice with Vaseline scooped from the floor on each trip down. The work was undeniably strange, but also wittily engaged a variety of established artistic themes - the aesthetics of the human form, the bodily gesture of the artist, endurance, the nature of the contemplated object, the meaning of materials and more.
Barney has continued from this auspicious start by creating the vast, ambitious "Cremaster" project (referring to the cremaster muscle, which controls the ascension and descension of the testicles), a series of visually and conceptually lush feature films, installations, objects and photographs. This weekend, the Museum of Contemporary Art screens Barney's latest film, "Cremaster 2," an epic Western loosely based on the legendary last days of Gary Gilmore (played by Barney). Dripping with symbolic elements, the film features visually arresting locations (the ice fields of Canada and the salt flats of Utah), wry bits of casting (Norman Mailer, whose "The Executioner's Song" chronicled the life of Gilmore, plays Harry Houdini, Gilmore's alleged grandfather) and a score composed by Jonathan Bepler.
(Ann Wiens)
Matthew Barney's "Cremaster 2" plays at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago, (312)397-4010, October 29, 8 & 10pm, and October 30, 6, 8 and 10pm. Due to sexual and violent imagery, this film is not recommended for viewing by children.
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