The Cremaster Cycle To Screen In Melbourne
The Cremaster Cycle (1995-2002) will be presented in a marathon session on rare 35mm film at the historic Astor Theatre. This cycle of works by esteemed American artist Matthew Barney, who is best known for this epic series of films, is an extraordinary five-part film project that has been absent from Australian cinema screens for a number of years. Created out of sequence over an eight year period, together the films craft a unique aesthetic universe of densely layered symbolism. Throughout the series Barney mixes anatomical and psychosexual metaphors and allusions with physical movements, special effect make up and vivid design elements and draws on a vast range of mythological and historical characters, iconic locations and his own autobiography. The Cremaster Cycle is somewhere in between a traditional film and an art installation. Confronting, confounding and absolutely creatively unmatched, Barney’s cycle of works represents a viewing experience like no other.
The title refers to the male Cremaster muscle that raises and lowers the male reproductive system according to temperature, external stimulation, or fear. Throughtout the course of the cycle of films, Barney uses this biological process as a metaphor to explore the evolution of form through conditions of ascension and descension. Barney’s fascination for the biological is also used as a metaphor for the creative process. With near cult status in the art world, The Cremaster Cycle is an evocation and deconstruction of the creative process by Barney, a sculptor and performance artist and arguably one of the most important artists of his generation. Visually arresting and often disturbing, the cycle when viewed in totality is a grand mixture of history, mythology, and autobiography exploring the creation of form.
List of Works Presented: Cremaster 1 (1996) / Cremaster 2 (1999) / Cremaster 3 (2002) / Cremaster 4 (1995) / Cremaster 5 (1997)
Session Details:
Saturday, March 3rd, from 2.00pm
Tickets $30 – $35.00