Page 9 - 50.La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine

Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, in After a prologue steeped in Celtic mythology, the narrative begins under
1995, which traveled to cpac Musée d’Art the foundation of the partially constructed Chrysler Building. A female
Contemporain, Bordeaux, and Kunsthalle corpse is digging her way out of a grave. She is the undead Gary Gilmore,
Bern in 1996. Sculpture, photographs, protagonist of Cremaster 2. Carried out of her tomb by five boys, she is
transported to the Chrysler Building’s lobby. The pallbearers deposit her
and drawings from CREMASTER 1 were body in the back seat of a Chrysler Imperial New Yorker. During this scene,
exhibited along with the film at Kunsthalle the camera cross-cuts to images of the Apprentice troweling cement over
Wien, in 1997 in a show that traveled to carved fuel-tank caps on the rear chassis of five 1967 Chrysler Crown
the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel Imperials, each bearing the insignia of a Cremaster episode. Packed with
in 1998. CREMASTER 5 (1997), received cement, these caps will serve as battering rams in a demolition derby
its premiere at Portikus, Frankfurt, in about to begin. The Apprentice then scales one of the building’s elevator
shafts until reaching a car resting between floors. Using this cabin as a
June 1997. The installations, sculptures, mold, he pours cement to cast the perfect ashlar, a symmetrically hewn
photographs, and drawings that comprise stone that in Masonic ritual symbolizes moral rectitude. By circumventing
the rest of the CREMASTER 5 projects the carving process to create the perfect ashlar, the Apprentice has
were exhibited in a solo exhibition at the cheated in his rites of passage and has sabotaged the construction of
Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, in the building.
The ensuing scene in the Chrysler Building’s Cloud Club bar is a slapstick
1997. CREMASTER 2 (1999) premiered routine between bartender and Apprentice. Almost everything goes
at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, wrong; and these humorous mishaps result in the bartender playing his
in July 1999, within a sculptural theater environment like a bagpipe. The various accidents leading up to this are
installation created by the artist. Acquired caused by a woman (played by Aimee Mullins) in an adjoining room, who
jointly by the Walker and the San Francisco is cutting potatoes with blades on her shoes and stuffing them under the
Museum of Modern Art, this installation foundation of the bar until it is no longer level-a condition that echoes the
corrupted state of the tower. This interlude is interrupted by a scene shift
and film were exhibited by the latter to a racetrack, where the Apprentice is accosted by hit men who break
in 2000. The premiere of CREMASTER 3 all his teeth in retribution for his deception. Back in the Cloud Club, he
(2002) took place at the Ziegfeld Theater, is escorted to a dental office, where he is stripped of his clothes, under
New York, under the auspices of Solomon which he is wearing the costume of the First Degree Masonic initiate. An
R. Guggenheim Museum. Matthew Barney: apron of flesh obtrudes from his navel, referencing the lambskin aprons
The Cremaster Cycle, an exhibition of worn by Masonic candidates as a symbol for the state of innocence
before the Fall.
artwork from the entire cycle organized
by the Guggenheim Museum, premiered The Architect descends from his studio to confront his opponent in the
at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne in June dental suite. He fits the compressed remains of the post-demolition-derby
2002 and subsequently traveled to the Imperial New Yorker into the Apprentice’s mouth like a pair of dentures. Guggenheim
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris At that moment, the Apprentice’s intestines prolapse through his rectum.
in October 2002. All five films of the cycle, This ceremonious disembowelment symbolically separates him from his
lower self. For his hubris he is simultaneously punished and redeemed
along with the site-specific sculpture by the Architect-whose own hubris, however, equally knows no bounds.
CREMASTER Field (2002), were presented Returning to his office, and anxious about the tower’s slow progress, the
by Artangel at the Ritzy Cinema, London Architect constructs two columns from large black plates that he lifts into
in October-November 2002. In addition, place with a chain hoist. These pillars allude to the columns, Jachin and
the films have been seen in film festivals Boaz, that Hiram Abiff designed for the Temple of Solomon. Meanwhile,
worldwide including Slamdance Film the Apprentice escapes and climbs to the topmost region of the tower.
The Architect uses his columns as a ladder and climbs through an oculus
Festival, Park City, Utah (1998); 27th in the ceiling. The next scene describes an apotheosis, the Architect
International Film Festival, Rotterdam becoming one with his design, as the tower itself is transformed into a
(1998); Nat Film Festival, Copenhagen maypole. At this point in the narrative the film pauses for a choric interlude,
(1998); Images Festival of Independent Film which rehearses the initiation rites of the Masonic fraternity through
and Video, Toronto (1998, 2000, and 2002); allegorical representations of the five-part Cremaster cycle, all in the
International Film Festival, Cleveland guise of a game staged in the Guggenheim Museum. Called “The Order,”
this competition features a fantastical incarnation of the Apprentice as
(1999); 23rd Goteborg Film Festival, its sole contestant, who must overcome obstacles on each level of the
Sweden (2000); Berlin International Film museum’s spiraling rotunda. In the ensuing scene, which returns to the
Festival (2000); The Hamptons International top of the Chrysler Building, the Architect is murdered by the Apprentice,
Film Festival (2001); IFlstanbul: 1st AFM/ who is then killed by the tower. Both men have been punished for their
International Independent Film Festival, hubris and the building will remain unfinished. The film ends with a coda
Istanbul (2002); and Sundance Film that links it to Cremaster 4. This is the legend of Fionn MacCumhail, which
describes the formation of the Isle of Man, where the next installment of
Festival, Park City, Utah (2003). the Cremaster cycle will take place.

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