Synopses & Reviews
Matthew Barney's
Cremaster cycle (19942002) is a self-enclosed aesthetic system consisting of five feature-length films that explore processes of creation. The cycle unfolds not just cinematically but also through the photographs, drawings, sculptures, and installations the artist produces in conjunction with each episode. Its conceptual departure point is the male cremaster muscle, which controls testicular contractions in response to external stimuli. The project is rife with anatomical allusions to the position of the reproductive organs during the embryonic process of sexual differentiation:
Cremaster 1 (1995) represents the most "ascended" or undifferentiated state,
Cremaster 5 (1997), the most "descended" or differentiated. The cycle repeatedly returns to those moments during early sexual development in which the outcome of the process is still unknown in Barney's metaphoric universe, these moments represent a condition of pure potentiality.
Cremaster 3 (2002) is part zombie thriller, part gangster film. As the final installment completed in the series, the film is a distillation of Barney's major themes, filtered through a symbolic matrix involving Freemasonry, Celtic lore, and coded references to the Cremaster cycle itself. Set in New York's Chrysler Building, Cremaster 3 also includes detours to the Guggenheim Museum, to the harness track in Saratoga Springs and to Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.
Review
"While this book of film stills and photographs cannot capture the same drama and emotion as the moving film, it nevertheless presents the artist's ideas in a whirling tapestry of extreme beauty, violence, horror, and compelling narrative." Library Journal
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Matthew Barney was born March 25, 1967, in San Francisco.