Cremaster Fanatic

Matthew Barney & Bjork Moving to Brooklyn, Selling Manhattan & Upstate Homes

2009-09-18T10:46:00.003-04:00

The Real Estalker blog reports that Matthew Barney and Bjork are selling their homes in Manhattan and Snedens Landing, NY and moving to Brooklyn Heights. Their new apartment will be a 3,000 sq. foot pre-war penthouse on Henry Street with wrap-around terrace, fireplace, four bedrooms, and four baths. It is listed at $4.25 million.

In case you'd like to purchase one of the star couple's former homes, the Manhattan apartment is a one-bedroom on W. Houston Street (listed at $1.7 million) and the Snedens Landing house is a six-bedroom located only 30 minutes up the Hudson River Valley from New York City (listed at 1.8 million or available for lease at $7,000 per month).

According to The Real Estalker, the Manhattan apartment features a bedroom painted black, an updated (but tiny) kitchen, and a 500 sq. foot terrace. The Snedens Landing home (in a community dubbed "Hollywood on the Hudson" due to the large number of actors living there) has views of the Hudson River, a stone Master Bedroom, two patios, and an artists studio.

More Blood of Two Photographs

2009-06-28T12:48:00.002-04:00

C-Monster and V Magazine have published some more photographs of the early-morning emergence of the artwork for Matthew Barney and Elizabeth Peyton's Blood of Two exhibition at the Deste Foundation in Greece. Follow the links for more pics:

C-Monster

V Magazine

More on Barney & Peyton's Blood of Two

2009-06-24T13:49:00.004-04:00

Artforum.com has published their account of the performance/opening of Matthew Barney and Elizabeth Peyton's "Blood of Two" exhibition at the Deste Foundation's new Slaughterhouse exhibition space:

"We sat, watching the sun rise over the lapis-blue Aegean and waiting. For a time, the only action came from those jostling for position on a stone wall above a ravine sloping down to the sea. Finally, a boat pulled into the cove, and a couple of divers went into the water. “They’re going to bring it up now,” said Gavin Brown director Corinna Durland, declining to say what “it” might be. “It’s been down there for two months.” After an indeterminate pause, we could see one diver pulling on a rope attached to a winch on the boat.

This went on for quite a while. Eventually, what looked like a table emerged from the water and was placed on the boat, which then put into shore. Ten Greek laborers in T-shirts and jeans roped the table––actually a bronze display case weighing 750 pounds––as if it were a calf and lifted it onto land, hauling it up a zigzagging stone staircase to the road. Watching them struggle to lift this piece of Barneymania up the slope was almost painful, though the sight kept Juergen Teller glued to his camera. Whenever the ropes slipped out of the men’s hands or one lost his footing, it was clear that the process could crush them. Suddenly, a herd of goats and a few lambs appeared on the road, their bells tinkling, and the whole scene began to feel like an outtake from a Bresson movie.

Then the pallbearers––it was difficult to think of the laborers as anything else––reached the road and placed Barney’s bier on a donkey cart. By this time, we could see five framed drawings under the glass top of the vitrine, which had taken on water. Two of the men appeared carrying a smallish dead shark (a dogfish) and placed it on top. Everyone with a camera closed in on the cart, now hitched to a donkey, and accompanied it in a funereal procession along the coastline toward what was once the island’s slaughterhouse, but is now a Deste Foundation project space, dodging animal droppings all the way. “This road is a perfect metaphor for life,” [curator Massimiliano] Gioni commented. “It’s steep and full of shit.”

Inside the slaughterhouse, on a promontory over the sea, a framed still life by Barney and a drawing by Peyton were hanging in former stalls. In the main room, where there was space for only about fifty witnesses, three of the men worked to get the glass top off the bier. At one point, Peyton craned her neck to check out the drawings in their watery case. “They’re still there,” she whispered to Barney. “The cat looks good.” At last, we could hear water rushing out of the vitrine and down the blood drain to the sea, and the men lifted the glass. Barney looked at his watch. “Just about two hours,” he said to Peyton. “Not bad. After all, there’s a limit to how long you can ask people to wait.” Coming from the king of slow, this seemed even more astonishing than the event.

With the glass removed, the drawings became more legible as they dried. By evening, when Joannou’s organization set a single long table for three hundred in the road above the slaughterhouse, they took on a beautiful glow. Dinner went on for a few hours as the shark roasted on a spit till the flesh fell from its bones."

Photos of Il Tempo Postino in Basel

2009-06-24T13:37:00.004-04:00

The Accessible Art blog has posted some photographs of Matthew Barney & Jonathan Bepler's performance in Hans Ulrich Obrist's Il Tempo Postino in Basel. We have to say, it doesn't look nearly as impressive as Barney's previous performances in Manchester and New York City.

Matthew Barney Meets The Smurfs?

2009-06-24T13:16:00.003-04:00

The Art Fag City blog has posted some photographs of a recent "Smurf gathering" in Wales, and draws some interesting parallels with Matthew Barney's Cremaster 1. Among the comparisons, they fail to note that Cardiff, the setting of the Smurf convention, is a stone's throw (globally speaking) from the Isle of Man, the setting of Barney's Cremaster 4.

Visit CremasterFanatic.com for more Matthew Barney look-alikes.

Matthew Barney's "Blood of Two" Emerges In Greece

2009-06-17T11:35:00.004-04:00

The New York Times's The Moment blog reports on the early-morning delivery of the artwork for Matthew Barney and Elizabeth Peyton's joint exhibition Blood of Two at the Deste Foundation's new "Slaughterhouse" exhibition space:

"After a late-night feast of mutton head hosted by Deste's Dakkis Jouannou (the guest list included artists Maurizio Catelan, Rirkrit Tiravanija and David Byrne), a crowd gathered on a cliffside road near the gallery on the Greek island of Hydra shortly before 6 AM. "Little by little the local psaras (fishermen) pulled out of the water an expected glass sarcophagus containing mysterious artifacts and artworks. The long pace of the unloading echoed the calm, focused and attentively observant crowd . . . . A signature Barney moment was the apparition of a herd of goats, accompanied by their voskos (shepherds), which initially appeared to be coincidental but soon revealed itself to be an integral part of the performance that blended with the human herd. The peak of the procession was the appearance of a dead shark (its mysterious absence of odor leaving many to wonder what means of conservation had been used), whose corpse was laid on the glass sarcophagus, a totemic symbol mixing traditions of fishery and religious codes. The cortege then proceeded slowly, like an animist funeral ceremony, accompanying the artwork . . . . Then, in a deeply charged atmosphere interrupted only by camera flashes, the coffin was finally unsealed by the leader of the fishermen, whose flamboyant moustache seemed straight out of Cremaster Central Casting. In a climactic moment, flooding water unveiled beautiful small-format graphite drawings by Elizabeth Peyton, which mixed elements of Symbolist imagery and nautical fantasies. The relieved crowd then walked its way toward the port, the early morning sun soothing their shock and awe."

"No Fist F***ing" For Matthew Barney in Basel

2009-06-16T19:22:00.004-04:00

Artforum.com's review of Il Tempo Postino in Basel notes, "Some were delighted that Matthew Barney didn’t reproduce the fist-fucking scene that caused such a controversy for the British [during Il Tempo Postino's initial run at the Manchester Opera House], while others thought the work had been better with it. (This time, at the end of Barney’s contribution there was only a concert in the lobby performed with a score by Jonathan Bepler.)"

We're waiting for more reviews and photographs to surface...

Ancient Evenings: Libretto Exhibition Photos

2009-06-13T18:50:00.003-04:00

Gladstone Gallery has published some images from Matthew Barney's Ancient Evenings: Libretto exhibition, which recently closed at their Brussels gallery. The exhibition included drawings and photographs related to the first two acts (titled "Ren" and "Sekhem") of Barney's Ancient Evenings - a seven act opera loosely based on Norman Mailer's 1983 Egyptian-set novel of the same name - and seven copies of Mailer's novel, each altered by Barney and sealed inside a vitrine. You can see more images HERE

Matthew Barney + Elizabeth Peyton Blood of Two Opens 6 AM, June 16

2009-06-13T18:30:00.006-04:00

A press release from Gavin Brown's Enterprise announces that Matthew Barney's collaborative exhibition with Elizabeth Peyton Blood of Two will be launched with a "delivery of the artwork" at 6 AM on Tuesday, June 16. Judging from the above photographs and the exhibition's location on the Greek Isle of Hydra, we can only imagine that the work is going to be "delivered" from the depths of the sea... It's definitely going to be worth waking up early if you are in this part of Greece!

The exhibition will be held in the DESTE Foundation's new project space, which used to be the island's slaughterhouse but which will now hold annual exhibitions. The Matthew Barney + Elizabeth Peyton exhibition will run through September 30.

Matthew Barney Performance Tonight in Basel, Switzerland

2009-06-10T10:51:00.004-04:00

Matthew Barney will be performing at the Basel Theater in Basel, Switzerland tonight, Thursday, and Friday at 8:30 PM as part of Philippe Parreno and Hans Ulrich Obrist's Il Tempo Postino. The Art Newspaper informs us that contrary to prior reports, Barney will not be performing Guardian of the Veil (his contribution to the original Il Tempo Postino in Manchester, England): "Instead he is creating a new work made in collaboration with the composer Jonathan Bepler, who has worked closely with Barney on his Cremaster Cycle films. 'The car that was in Matthew’s Manchester piece got shredded in a performance in Los Angeles and so it cannot be repeated,' reveals Hans Ulrich Obrist. 'His new piece will be much more in the realm of 15 minutes long and although it is still related to the earlier work, he is developing something more to do with the idea of a musical score.'”

We hope any Cremaster Fanatics in Basel will send us their photographs and reviews of the show.

Pornographic Drawing Restraint?

2009-06-03T13:11:00.003-04:00

Cremaster Fanatic Jason, who sent us the link to the Matthew Barney / Bjork "First Date" video in our last post, wrote back with a warning for Barney Fans trolling the internet for Matthew Barney videos. Jason says that while searching for a torrent of Drawing Restraint 7, he downloaded a video tagged "Drawing Restraint" that turned out to be a naked Australian woman masturbating while tied to a tree. Is she a Matthew Barney fan? To us, her video sounds more like De Lama Lamina than Drawing Restraint.

Matthew Barney and Bjork on Their First Date

2009-05-26T09:06:00.002-04:00

Cremaster Fanatic Jason sent us a link to this new video by Kelly and Misha - a re-enactment of Matthew Barney's first date with Bjork. Although this is obviously a fictionalized account, the biographical information is pretty accurate!

Matthew Barney To Collaborate With Elizabeth Peyton in Greece

2009-05-20T08:49:00.004-04:00

Artnet reports that Matthew Barney is collaborating with painter Elizabeth Peyton on a site-specific installation on the Greek island of Hydra. The exhibition will be held at the Slaughterhouse, a new project space (housed in - guess what? - a former slaughterhouse) run by mega-collector Dakis Joannou and the Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art. The components of the installation will be realized together on-site and will be exhibited afterwards as one work. The exhibition opens on June 16 and runs through September 30.

Image: "Matthew Barney" by Elizabeth Peyton, 2008.

Matthew Barney Edition On Sale

2009-05-05T19:21:00.004-04:00

New York art bookstore Printed Matter is having a sale on editions and multiples throughout the month of May. Included on their list of discounted items is Matthew Barney's The Man in Black / Drone Harness, a 12" vinyl picture disc featuring music from Jonathan Bepler's Cremaster 2 soundtrack. The record, which was released in 2000 in an edition of 500 signed & numbered copies, is marked down to $220 from the original price of $275. You can order the record HERE (note: the discounted price does not appear online, but Printed Matter will include the discount before charging your credit card).

Matthew Barney to Perform at Art Basel

2009-04-24T10:33:00.004-04:00

Matthew Barney's Guardian of the Veil will be presented at this summer's Art Basel as part of “Il Tempo del Postino”, a series of performance works directed by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Philippe Parreno, Anri Sala and Rirkrit Tiravanija. There will be three presentations of “Il Tempo del Postino,” on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, June 10 – 12, 2009 at 8.30 pm at Theater Basel.

In addition to Barney's performance, "Il Tempo del Postino" will include pieces by Doug Aitken, Tacita Dean, Trisha Donnelly, Olafur Eliasson, Peter Fischli / David Weiss, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Koo Jeong-A, Philippe Parreno, Anri Sala, Tino Sehgal and Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Thomas Demand.

More information is available on the Art Basel web site. Tickets are priced from Swfr80-200 ($68-$171) and may be purchased HERE. We anticipate this event will sell out quickly, so buy your tickets soon if you are planning to attend Art Basel.

Matthew Barney Theater 3000

2009-04-18T09:46:00.005-04:00

The EFA Project Space in New York City is holding an event on Thursday, April 23 called The Glorified Docent, a screening of bootlegged art films with live color commentary from guest critics based on the structure of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K), the American cult television comedy series that aired from 1988 to 1999. EFA has not released a list of the films they will be showing, but rumor has it that at least one Cremaster film will be screened. The guest critics include Art Fag City, David Coggins, Bill Cole, Steve Dumain, the Eh-Team, Sarah Hromack, Lady Rizo, Nathan Shafer, and others. The screening follows a panel discussion (titled "The Future of Panel Discussions") that starts at 6:00 PM.

Joseph Kosuth Vs. Matthew Barney

2009-04-09T08:40:00.003-04:00

Cremaster fanatic Carolyn emailed us to let us know that she has posted a (bootleg) video of Laurina Paperina's animation Joseph Kosuth Versus Matthew Barney, as seen at the Pulse Art Fair in New York a few weeks ago. You can see the video here and more of Laurina's artwork here.

Cremaster 4 Video Game

2009-03-24T09:04:00.004-04:00

Cremaster Fanatic Paul has created another fantastic Matthew Barney-inspired level for the PlayStation 3 game Little Big Planet. The latest installment is based on Cremaster 4. If you own the game, you can download the level from the LBP community page -- Paul's username is fluxlasers. If you don't own the game (or need some tips on completing the level), check out the video below. Follow the links for videos of Paul's levels based on Cremaster 1 and "The Order" from Cremaster 3. Paul is working on creating levels for the entire Cremaster Cycle.

Matthew Barney Exhibition in Brussels Opening March 19

2009-02-19T21:00:00.003-05:00

The Brussels branch of Gladstone Gallery (Rue du Grand Cerf 12 Grote Hertstraat - 1000 Brussels) is hosting an exhibition of new drawings by Matthew Barney called Ancient Evenings: Libretto from March 20 - May 9. There will be an opening reception from 6-9 on March 19.

From the press release:

"Gladstone Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new drawings by Matthew Barney from Ancient Evenings, a seven act opera loosely based on Norman Mailer's 1983 Egyptian-set novel and currently in development by Barney and composer Jonathan Bepler.

Each act of the opera chronicles one of the seven stages that the soul passes through after the death of the body. Remaining true to the original theme of rebirth and reincarnation, Ancient Evenings recasts the central myth of Isis and Osiris in a contemporary industrial landscape. Barney has replaced the human body with the body of the 1967 Chrysler Imperial that was the central motif from his earlier film Cremaster 3. This exhibition will include drawings that explore the character and thematic development of the first two acts, entitled "Ren" and "Sekhem." Obsessively drawn, Barney's graphite drawings map the conceptual depths of each project rather than presenting storyboard-like narratives. Barney evokes his beautifully rendered imagery with the addition of non-traditional materials such as petroleum jelly and metal leaf, in addition to lapis dust and PCL, a plastic derived from crude oil. Alongside these drawings, Barney has taken seven copies of Mailer's novel to create unique sculptures inside wall-mounted vitrines. Each piece contains one copy resting upon a bed of carved salt and opened to a spread that bears a drawing pertaining to one of the seven stages of the soul. In co-mingling Barney's draftsmanship with passages that comprise the opera's libretto, each book represents a different aspect of Barney's new interpretation of Mailer's novel."

Interestingly, the press release also notes that Acts 2-4 of Ancient Evenings (Act 1 is Ren, performed in Los Angeles last May) are currently in production for summer 2009.

Cremaster 1 Video Game for PlayStation

2009-01-27T09:29:00.004-05:00

Cremaster Fanatic Paul, who previously designed a level for the PlayStation 3 game Little Big Planet based on "The Order" sequence from Cremaster 3, has created a new level for the game based on Cremaster 1.

Paul tells us that he plans to create levels based on all five Cremaster films. Once completed, he will incorporate all the levels into an area called The Cremaster Cycle where you start with Cremaster 4 and complete and unlock the levels in the same order the films were released. On the Cremaster 3 level there will be a hidden key which will unlock "The Order" level. Keep reading the Cremaster Fanatic blog, and we'll inform you as the other levels are released.

If you have a PS3 and the Little Big Planet game, you can search for Paul's Cremaster-themed levels on the community page and play them yourself (Paul's PSN username is "fluxlasers"). We've included a video of the Cremaster 1 level below:

Matthew Barney Updates

2009-01-20T18:45:00.006-05:00

We've completed a major update to CremasterFanatic.com If you haven't visited lately, please check out all of the new material. We've added tons of pictures, videos, artwork, and more!

Among our favorites are:

Pages of production photographs showing the making of The Cremaster Cycle, Drawing Restraint, De Lama Lamina, Guardian of the Veil, and Ren.

New Fan Art.

New Fan Videos.

A few more Fan Costumes.

Drawing Restraint 9 Glossary

And, of course, loads and loads of photos of Matthew 1 2 3 4

More Ren Production Photographs

2009-01-20T11:16:00.002-05:00

Regen Projects, Matthew Barney's gallery in Los Angeles, has posted some photos from his Ren performance last May on their web site. See more photos HERE.

Cremaster Video Game For PS3

2009-01-16T14:24:00.005-05:00

Cremaster Fanatic Paul sent us information on this level based on "The Order" sequence from Cremaster 3 that he created for the PlayStation 3 game Little Big Planet. If you have a PS3 and the game, you can search for it on the community page and play it yourself (the level is called "The Order" and Paul's PSN username is "fluxlasers"). If you don't have a PS3, you can watch a video of the game below (the video also provides hints on how to complete the level):

4th Degree Cremaster Dub

2009-01-12T20:29:00.004-05:00

Australian electronic music group MASONIK has just produced a track called 4th Degree Cremaster Dub. The song features samples of Cremaster 2 and Matthew Barney discussing his work over a wobbly reggae bassline. You can hear the song on MASONIK's myspace page http://www.myspace.com/masonik

Rockin' Field Emblems

2009-01-10T13:41:00.004-05:00

Thanks to Cremaster Fanatics Ross and Michael for sending us these Rock N Roll field emblems. The first is the cover of German death metal band Anasarca's album "Moribund", the second from the classic School House Rock cartoon series. Look for the field emblem around 1:18 in the SHR clip below. And, for more found field emblems, visit www.cremasterfanatic.com