Matthew Barney Film Screenings
7 pm - Thurs, Oct. 29
Shriver Hall, JHU
FREE
Films:
Cremaster 4, 1994
Cremaster 4, was Barney's first film in a series of five called Cremaster Cycle. Biologically, the cremaster is a muscle that raises and lowers the testicles. Barney uses the descension of the cremaster muscle as a symbol for the onset of male gender (which appears about nine weeks after a fetus is conceived). The five films progress from a state of undifferentiated gender (a fully ascended cremaster muscle, represented by floating Goodyear Blimps and other symbols), through the organism's struggle to resist gender definition, to the inevitable point where maleness can no longer be denied (complete descension of the cremaster and release of the testes).
Drawing Restraint 10, 2005
The Drawing Restraint series is a project Barney began while an undergraduate at Yale. The central theme of the series is the relationship between self-imposed resistance and creativity. Barney's theory is that encumbrance can be used to strengthen an artists output, much as resistance is used by athletes to build muscle. Drawing Restraint 10 is a video re-staging Drawing Restraint 6, which was never documented. In this video, Barney jumps on a trampoline which has been set at an angle, attempting to draw two linked field emblems on the ceiling.
