Cremaster 1Cremaster 1
Matthew Barney, 40 mins, USA, 1996, 35mm, Courtesy: Accent Entertainment
In twin hovering Goodyear blimps, a platinum starlet (Marti Domination) builds geometric patterns on the blue-Astroturf field below. Set at the Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho (Barney's hometown), the Busby Berkeley-style musical revue maps the formation of an 'undifferentiated' reproductive system (marking the first six weeks of foetal development).
Cremaster 2
Matthew Barney, 79 mins, USA, 1999, 35mm, Courtesy: Accent Entertainment
The circular narrative of this hallucinatory gothic western loops from the 1977 execution of notorious murderer Gary Gilmore (Barney) to 1893, when Harry Houdini (Norman Mailer), Gilmore's supposed grandfather, performed at the World's Columbian Exposition. Set in landscapes ranging from salt flats to glacial ice fields, Gilmore's story is metaphorically represented via the life cycle of bees and corresponds to the second phase of foetal development.
"An inspired benchmark of ambition, scope and forthright provocation for art in the new century." The New York Times
"Matthew Barney's beautiful Cremaster Cycle is the first great fusion of art and cinema since Un Chien Andalou." The Guardian
