Matthew Barney: CREMASTER 3

by Matthew Barney (Artist)

Cremaster 3, the last in Matthew Barney's epic five-part film project, is part zombie, part gangster film. Set in 1930s New York and Saratoga Springs as well as Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, the plot explores the Irish mob system, freemasonry, and Celtic lore as further symbols for the forces at play in Barney's mythological system. Named after the muscle that raises or lowers a man's testicles in response to temperature, the Cremaster series has featured Barney as a satyr, a magician, a ram, Harry Houdini, and even famous murderer Gary Gilmore, props made from tapioca, petroleum jelly, ice, and self-healing plastic, and settings as fantastic and desolate as the Isle of Man, an empty football stadium in Idaho, and a nearly empty opera house in Hungary. The films are slow-moving and weirdly hynotic, full of elaborate sexual and biological allusions, references to sports and fashion, and a bizarre mix of autobiography, history, and private symbolism that have earned him comparisons to Wagner. This book is the final of the five companion volumes published to coincide with the release of each of the Cremaster films. Each was designed in an original manner by the artist and features photographs and stills from the film it accompanies.

Genres: Art

204 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Matthew Barney is an American artist who works in sculpture, photography, drawing and film. His early works were sculptural installations combined with performance and video. Between 1994 and 2002 he created the Cremaster Cycle, a series of five feature-length films described by Jonathan Jones in The Guardian as "one of the most imaginative and brilliant achievements in the history of avant-garde cinema."

Reviews

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matthew Barney, Cremaster 3 (The Guggenheim Museum, 2003)

Matthew Barney's oft-celebrated and yet little-seen Cremaster series of films was finally completed with the release of Cremaster 3 in 2002. As a celebration, the Guggenheim mounted a showing of stills from the five films in early 2003. This is the book printed as a companion to the showing. As should be expected from both Barney and the Guggenheim, it's a sumptuous release.

The vast majority of the book is nothing but photographs, though a few pieces of text flit in and out. The movies have an almost dadaesque sense of both being rooted in a place and being dislocated; the book, too, bears that same mark. You know, for example, you're looking at a closeup of a Chrysler hood ornament. But why? And what's that in the reflection, so very distorted? What's Barney's fascination with the Chrysler Building, anyway? Why is Aimee Mullins even more gorgeous when made up to look like a leopard?

Of course, none of these questions actually get answered. But the films, and this book, are about visual experience anyway, unless you want to spend hundreds of hours dissecting the intricate layers of symbolism with which every second of the films are invested. In which case, go to it, and let us know what you find; for most folks, I think the simple beauty of the images will be enough. Either way, it's certainly worth a look. ****

[Carina Stopenski · Rating 4 out of 5]

devastated that i'll probably never be able to see any part of this on screen except "the order" but god am i glad i got to witness some of these photos

[Bart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 3 together with the 4 other films in the Ludwig Museum in Cologne in 2002. Three hours of bizarre, glossy, neo-gothic film, set in the Chrysler Building, the Guggenheim Museum and on Giant’s Causeway. Featuring zombies, gangsters, Richard Serra, Aimee Mullins and Barney himself. My twenty-something self was blown away.

Cremaster 3 is the most accomplished of the cycle, and this book is simply a series of film stills, capturing all scenes. As the movie is unavailable on dvd, this is the closest you’ll get experiencing it – if you buy the soundtrack that is: Jonathan Bepler’s music is available. The 360p YouTube uploads of the entire movie do not do it justice.

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