Page 7 - 50.La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine
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petroleum wax.                    member of Slayer, is playing a drum solo to the sound of swarming bees.
        Between 1990 and 1991, Barney also   A man shrouded by bees with the voice of Steve Tucker, lead vocalist of
                                          Morbid Angel, growls into a telephone. Collectively these figures allude
        created video, photography, and sculptural   to  Johnny  Cash,  who  is said  to have called Gilmore  on the night of his
        pieces such as The Jim Otto Suite (1991)   execution in response to the convict’s dying wish.
        (with subsections titled OTTOblow and   Barney depicts Gilmore ‘s murder of a Mormon gas station attendant in
        AUTOblow), which feature fictional   both  sculptural  and  dramatic  forms.  Inferring  that  Gilmore  killed  out  of
        characters who function as metaphors   a kind of perverse longing for union with his girlfriend, Nicole Baker, he
        for thematic motifs that run throughout   represents their relationship through two conjoined Cars: the blue and the
                                          white 1966 Mustangs that they coincidentally both owned. These vehicles
        the work: football hero Jim Otto and the   are connected via a honeycomb tunnel, which joins the front seats into
        “Character of Positive Restraint,” in either   one channel and traverses the pump island of the filling station where
        the guise of escape artist Harry Houdini   they are parked. In the murder sequence, Gilmore shoots his victim in the
        or the feminine Jim Blind, who appears   back of the head on the floor of the gas station bathroom. This act sets in
        in drag. These works, along with those   motion the trial and verdict that will condemn him to death, a sentence he
        listed above, were featured in Barney’s   embraces despite all efforts to overturn it. Barney stages the judgment of
        first solo museum exhibition organized by   Gilmore in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s elaborate, pipe-organ-studded
                                          hall. Gilmore welcomes death, refusing to appeal his sentence and opting
        the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art   for execution by firing squad, in a literal interpretation of the Mormon belief
        in 1991-1992.                     that blood must be shed in order for a sinner to obtain salvation.
                                          Gilmore’s execution is staged as a prison rodeo in an arena cast entirely
        In 1992, Barney introduced fantastical   from salt in the middle of the flooded Bonneville Salt Flats. A posse of
        creatures into his work, a gesture   mounted state troopers begins the proceedings by parading through the
        that presaged the vocabulary of his   arena. Gilmore is lowered Onto a Brahman bull; the gates are opened
                                          and  he rides  to his  death.  In  Barney’s  interpretation  of  the  execution,
        subsequent  narrative films. The multi-  Gilmore was less interested in attaining Mormon  redemption than in
        channel video installation OTTOshaft   performing a chronological two-step that would return him to the space
        (1992), which premiered at Documenta   of his alleged grandfather, Houdini, with whom he identified the notion of
        IX, Kassel, Germany (1992), features   absolute freedom through self-transformation. Seeking escape from his
                                          fate, he chose death in an act of ultimate self-will. Gilmore’s metaphoric
        bands of dueling bagpipers. And Drawing
        Restraint 7 (1993), which was shown   transportation back to the turn of the century is rendered in a dance
                                          sequence featuring the Texas two-step. The film ends in the foggy environs
        in that year’s Biennial Exhibition at the   of the Columbian Exposition hall where Houdini has just completed his
        Whitney Museum of American Art, New   magic act. He is approached by Gilmore’s future grandmother Baby Fay La
        York, and Aperto ‘93, 45th Venice Biennale,   Foe who will seduce him, an act that sets in motion the circular narrative   Guggenheim
        includes mythological satyrs, who battle   of Cremaster 2.
        for supremacy while riding in and out of
        Manhattan in a limousine.
                                          CREMASTER 3,2002 (3:0 1:59)
                                          Written and Directed by Matthew Barney
        In 1994, Barney began work on his   Produced by Barbara Gladstone and Matthew Barney
        epic CREMASTER cycle, a five-part   Director of Photography: Peter Strietmann
        film project accompanied by related   Music composed by Jonathan Bepler
        sculptures, photographs, and drawings.   Associate Producer: Chelsea Romersa
                                          Production Design: Matthew D. Ryle
        Eschewing  chronological order, Barney   Starring Richard Serra, Aimee Mullins and Matthew Barney
        first  produced CREMASTER 4 (1994),
        which premiered with an exhibition of   CREMASTER 3 forms the spine of the cycle.  As the central chapter of
        related works at the Fondation Cartier   the five installments, it functions like a double mirror, reflecting those
        pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, in March   before and anticipating  those  to follow. Set  in  New  York  City, the film
        1995. Drawings and photographs from   weaves an account of the construction of the Chrysler Building, which is
                                          in itself a character-host to inner, antagonistic forces at play for access to
        CREMASTER 4 were exhibited in the 1995
                                          the process of (spiritual) transcendence. These factions find form in the
        Biennial Exhibition,  Whitney Museum   struggle between Hiram Abiff or the Architect (played by Richard Serra),
        of American Art,  New York. The  second   and the Entered Apprentice (played by Matthew Barney), who are both
        completed film, CREMASTER 1 (1995),   working on the building. They are reenacting the Masonic myth of Hiram
        premiered at the New York Video Festival   Abiff, purported architect of Solomon’s Temple, who possessed knowledge
        in  October  1995.  Both  films  were  also   of the mysteries of the universe. The murder and resurrection of Abiff are
                                          reenacted during Masonic initiation rites as the culmination of a three-part
        included in Barney’s solo exhibition PACE
                                          process  through  which  a  candidate  progresses  from  the  first  degree  of
        CAR for  the  HUBRIS  PILL at Museum   Entered Apprenticeship to the third of Master Mason.
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