The Cremaster Series

Matthew Barney

Ted Gushue

Randall Van Schepen

Issues In Contemporary Art

5/3/09
 Matthew Barney is an American filmmaker who began work on what many

consider his opus: The Cremaster Cycle. In 1994 Barney finished production of the fourth

installment “Cremaster 4” in a somewhat unorthodox fashion as the next installment

“Cremaster 1” was filmed a year later. The entire series finished production in 2002 and a

set number of 20 copies of the movie were produced in high definition on DVD. These

DVD’s were auctioned to galleries at a minimum of $100,000 in order to preserve the

exclusivity of the work. Thankfully however, a small 30-minute excerpt of the third film is

available on DVD through the Guggenheim that will give out of the way viewers the

chance to experience a small portion of the full piece. This limited availability of the cycle

has only added to the mysticism that surrounds Matthew Barney’s work and has

subsequently started the somewhat cult following that it maintains. This following has

even gone so far as to create entire video game levels based on each or order of the

Cremaster, not to mention in depth websites regarding themselves as havens for

Cremaster fanatics. For the sake of organization, the films shall be analyzed in order, not

chronologically.

Cremaster 1 Begins at night in Boise, Idaho on the field at a brightly lit football

stadium. Above the scene, two Goodyear blimps hover precariously as they mirror the

action that is taking place on the field below. Each blimp carries 4 “vaguely bored and

sullen flight attendants” (1) that perform the same motions as the participants beneath

them. An interesting piece of information that illustrates Barney’s meticulous attention to

detail is the attire of the blimp attendants. They can be found wearing couture uniforms in

the vein of the 1930’s zeppelin era that were hand designed by Isaac Mizrahi. These
attendants sit around a white cloth covered table adorned with grapes, green on one

blimp, and purple on the next. In the center of the table is a sculpture depicting the female

reproductive system covered in Vaseline. Both the Vaseline and the reproductive system

are recurring themes throughout the series. In this case, the female reproductive system

serves as a foil to the Cremaster, which is in fact a muscle that controls the upward and

downward movement of the male reproductive system. Beneath these tables lies

Goodyear, the heroine of Cremaster 1. Goodyear inhibits this small space while forming

the Cremaster symbol with corresponding grapes to her table. Much like the attendants,

Goodyear’s outfit is significant, wearing an all white slip and a pair of white high heels,

echoing the aesthetic of the Goodyear blimp. One of her shoes carries a glass horn

protrusion that allows her to pierce the tablecloth and remove grapes one at a time.

At the same time as Goodyear is introduced, a beaming group of girls forming a

chorus line is shown from an aerial view. Their oversized hoop skirts mirror the patterns

being created by Goodyear with her grapes. The theme of this action harkens back to the

golden era of cinema, and the over produced aesthetic of a 1930’s musical. The musical

theme is utilized to delve into the androgynous and conflicting roles of female and male

sexuality. Unlike the rest of the Cremaster series, Cremaster 1 chooses to focus on female

desire, and the transformation and exaltation of the female body. This wave of femininity

is not fully developed till the end of the 40-odd minute that culminates in a Busby

Berkeley-esque dance routine. Cremaster 1 is the initial look into the complex metaphor

that is the development of sexual identity. Beginning in a heavenly state, Cremaster 1 fills

the role of conception in the five part series meant to represent the conception cycle.
 The theme of sexual discovery is continued into Barney’s Cremaster 2 which runs

for twice as long as the prior installment and furthers down the path of biological

conversion. Barney creates a longing for the time before the male chromosome entered

the equation by introducing Gary Gilmore. Barney plays Gilmore, a convicted murderer

and rumored grandson of Harry Houidini. Again Barney’s ability to intertwine

performance with reality is showcased by Houdini being played by Norman Mailer. Mailer

is the author of “The Executioner’s Song” a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the life and

death of Gary Gilmore. Cremaster 2 takes much from Mailers book; regarded as an

exhaustive approach to the psyche of a killer, it delves into every aspect of Gilmore’s life

from interviews with childhood friends up to his decision to demand execution by firing

squad.

Cremaster 2 begins with a mysterious ritual between Gilmore’s parents and the

lover of Houdini: Baby Fay La Foe. This ritual signifies the conception of Gilmore, and is

supported through various forms of bee imagery, ending up with the insemination of

Gilmore’s mother with a drop of honey. Barney uses these symbols as representations of

the masculine aggressive nature of the killings committed by Gilmore. The honey and bee

imagery is unapologetically a metaphor for Utah, whose state insect is the honeybee. It

serves a dual purpose by juxtaposing the soft, sweet, feminine side of the honey and

conception with the brutal, dominant, masculine actions of Gilmore, which resulted in his

death.

The feminine roles that the Goodyear blimps played in Cremaster 1 are replaced

with two ultra masculine cars that appear as Barney enters the film as Gary Gilmore.
Barney uses the cars as a way to emphasize how futile masculine symbols are to attract

members of the opposite sex, embodied by the sense of longing experienced by Gilmore.

The actual murderer supposedly committed the acts in hopes of regaining the affection of

his girlfriend, Nicole Baker. At this point the movie departs from a relative instance of

clarity, and returns into abstraction. Gilmore’s murders are depicted in scenes cutting

back and forth with shots moving through a deserted cathedral containing the Mormon

tabernacle choir at the end. The irony shines through in this scene as both of Gilmore’s

victims were of Mormon faith. Barney also asserts that it is this Mormon faith that caused

him to reject the appeals of the death penalty, eventually resulting in his self requested

death by firing squad. An estranged ritual that aims to abstract the brutal nature of his

selected method of execution by firing squad climactically illustrates Gilmore’s demise.

Unlike Cremaster 1 and 2, Cremaster 3 is surprisingly self-contained.

Chronologically the film is the 5th and final, ending production in 2002. As the last film he

produced, Barney is exhibiting the mastery of the medium that he has developed over the

course of the Cremaster series. 3 is considered the most dense of the 5 and to aid the

viewer, Barney has divided it up into four sections, each seemingly representing the

segmental development of Barney as an artist. The first of these stages begins with two

giants on a remote deserted isle. These two giants appear to be father and son, with the

prototypical patriarch disapproving of his son’s interest in sculpture. The metaphor is

almost too clear as it refers to Barney’s father’s initial confusion over his foray into the art

world. In an interview with his father done by PBS in the Art: 21 series, his father explains
that as a youth Matthew had never expressed any interest in the art world, and had

actually planned on being a surgeon for most of his young adult life.

As the film continues, the dominant theme of an oppressive and unappreciative

father is maintained in different scenarios. Barney is cast as a mason in the Chrysler

building segment, and undergoes arduous work to complete extremely strange tasks that

are never understood. Pulling from the previous film, a female corpse is introduced as the

undead Gary Gilmore. She is transported to the lobby of the Chrysler building and from

there to a Chrysler Imperial New Yorker. Famous buildings are a theme throughout

Cremaster 3, as the story moves from the Chrysler to the Guggenheim and the apprentice

scene begins. Barney is recast as the “Entered Apprentice” paying homage to his previous

role of a literal mason; Barney now plays a member of the Masonic brotherhood. This

scene in particular is riddled with Masonic references, ranging from Masonic uniforms

being worn by women who are dressed as sheep, all the way to the traditional headdress

adorned by Barney. The task of the Apprentice in this scene is to scale the walls of the

Guggenheim museum, and at each of the five levels he is greeted with living sculpture that

is in place to embody different stages of his relationship to the art world. Each one of

these dioramas is also representative of one of the Cremaster films. Cremaster 3 is devoid

of speech between its participants, however Barney is able to articulate his ideas

masterfully. To quote a review of the movie: “clearly, the scale and opulence of Barney’s

vision are unusual, even in the art world… The movie looks as if barney himself has

painstakingly sculpted every detail on screen.” (2)

 Prior to his work with the Cremaster series, critics viewed many of his works as

“Memorably Weird” (3) accusing his work of being “Muddled and juvenile” at the same

time harkening back to the 1970’s work of Chris Burden and Vito Acconci. As Cremaster 4

was the initial film by Barney, it created the biggest stir and to some degree braced the art

world for the rest of the Cremaster series. The movie begins on the Isle of Man with

Barney cast as a satyr surrounded by fairies. Here is the first mention of the recurring

theme of tap dancing as he dances a hole through the pier and begins his aquatic journey

along the seabed. Barney finds himself crawling reverse through what can only be the

birth canal of the island symbolizing his desire to return to the utopian state prior to

birth. This theme of androgyny had presented itself prior to the Cremaster series when

barney created a video “in which he dressed in high heels and an evening dress and

performed movements based on the signals and gestures that football referees make.” (3)

The theme continues in 4 with a race consisting of two sidecar motorcycles, yellow and

blue, racing in opposite directions. The fairies from the aforementioned tap dancing scene

reappear and attempt to attach a tire containing a pair of testicles to the motorcycle in an

over literal attempt to mock the masculinity of the sport.

As has become apparent throughout the series, Barney is obsessed with social

rituals, rites, competition, and masculinity, and the final installment is no exception. The

Hungarian State Opera house in Budapest plays host to a “miniature opera”(4) scored by

Jonathan Bepler. The opera includes Barney’s rendition of a Hungarian libretto depicting

a romantic tragedy that takes place in Ursula Andress’ character, The Queen of Chain.

Andress appears almost in the same vein as a powdered queen Elizabeth, further
emphasized by her assistants who are adorned in similar style Elizabethan attire. The

queen sits in a theater box that allows her to gaze through a hole in the floor that reveals a

Turkish bath in which a strange ritual with water nymphs surround a Poseidon-esque sea

god played by Barney. The sea god carries a set of ribbons attached to his crotch that are

slowly cut away by the nymphs. The release of these ribbons causes the pigeons that had

been cruelly attached to them to continue their upward flight.

It is both easy and difficult to assert meanings from the intricacies put in place by

barney. The audience easily reads many of the metaphors in this epic series, for instance

the power struggle between man and his father, or the many symbols of pre-sexuality that

is encapsulated in the androgynous nature of all 5 films. However the audience has

frequently paused to wonder, what the hell was he thinking? Undoubtedly the cinematic

achievement is great. Barney has produced an art house film that is categorized with the

same low budget 1973 video “The consumer is consumed” by Richard Serra, and yet

shares the same production value as a Hollywood Blockbuster. He has forever changed

the notion of art film with the Cremaster series and will slowly continue to do so as more

and more people find their way to a Cremaster showing.

(1) PBS Art: 21, “Matthew Barney’s “Cremaster 1”
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/barney/card1.html
(2) Matthew Barney, “Cremaster 3” review of Cremaster 3, by Jeremy Heilman,
moviemartyr.com reviews. May 19th 2002
http://www.moviemartyr.com/2002/cremaster3.htm
(3) Michael Kimmelman, “Cremaster 4 Art Review” New York Times April 28 th
1995 Movies Section New York edition
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?
res=990CE7D91139F93BA15757C0A963958260
(4) Stephen Holden, “Cremaster 5 Film Review” New York Times October 22 1997
Movies Section New York Edition http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?
res=9A06E3DC143EF931A15753C1A961958260

Matthew Barney, “Cremaster 2” review of Cremaster 2, by Jeremy Heilman,

moviemartyr.com reviews. April 10th 2003
http://www.moviemartyr.com/2002/cremaster2.htm

Matthew Barney, “Cremaster 1” review of Cremaster 1, by Jeremy Heilman,

moviemartyr.com reviews. April 7th 2003
http://www.moviemartyr.com/2002/cremaster2.htm