The web site for Matthew Walin's film I Die Daily - a documentary about the making of the Cremaster Cycle has lots of great "behind the scenes" photographs. I've posted a few images for your viewing pleasure, but there are many more (plus a video trailer) on the official site.
Of possible interest to Matthew Barney fans, Egyptian artist Nader Sadek has collaborated with Steve Tucker (former frontman for the band Morbid Angel and the voice of "The Man in Black" in Cremaster 2) for the exhbition The Faceless opening September 6 at Michael Steinberg Fine Art, 526 West 26th Street, New York City.
Much like Barney's new Guardian of the Veil, Sadek's work juxtaposes the iconographies of Death Metal and Middle Eastern fundamentalism, which outsiders often associate with darkness, moon worship, and anti-Christian fervor. Says Sadek: "For a while now, I've been interested in exploring what different cultures perceive of as extreme. 'The Faceless' grows out of years of walking the crowded streets of Downtown Cairo dressed as a full-on death metal fan (i.e., long black hair, long-sleeve Morbid Angel/Deicide t-shirts, and an overall grungy look). Then, in a sort of twisted reversal, I decided to walk the streets of New York's Times Square in the black garb of a fully veiled woman."
"The intense reactions I got in each case confirmed for me the potential of this project. Those experiences inspired me to channel the popular paranoid fantasy in which the fully veiled woman is wrought from a dark death metal world, full of serpents, skulls, demons and dark mountains. I hope that by reflecting back to the audience their paranoid fantasies, which totally oversimplify the reality of Middle Eastern and death metal culture, that my work will get them toquestion their own prejudices and sense of the extreme."
Many thanks to Cremaster Fanatic Paul, who created this great animated banner for us. The full-size banner isn't compatible with Blogger -- Click here to see at full-size.
We are always happy to accept submissions of Matthew Barney-related artwork, photographs etc. Please email them to info (at) cremasterfanatic.com
Here are some more photos from the feature on Barney in L'Uomo Vogue (see my post from August 12 for more). In the second photo from the top Barneyis working on the artificial cow vagina from Guardian of the Veil.
As a bonus, here's a photo of Barney from the new book Faces of Fashion edited by Susan Bright.
As I promised months ago, here are scans of some of the photos of Matthew Barney from the May/June issue of L'Uomo Vogue. The slightly funky English translation of the article is posted here. I will post some more of the pictures shortly. For more photographs of Barney, please visit CremasterFanatic.com
Page 6 reports that Bjork's "huge black yacht" is currently moored in Long Island City, New York. Presumably, it's tied up somewhere near Barney's new LIC studio. Unfortunately, Page 6, "could not make out the yacht's name because it was 'scrawled in very choppy letters.'"
It's been a while since I checked YouTube for new Matthew Barney videos. I'm presenting a roundup here of a bunch of new videos. Of course, you should visit the CremasterFanatic.com Fan Video Page for lots of great Barney-inspired videos (most with links for viewing).
Note: many of these are multi-part videos on Youtube -- I'm only posting the first part of each video here.
First up, is a lengthy interview between Barney and Richard Flood, the Chief Curator of the Walker Arts Center (part 1 of 5):
Next is the trailer for Matthew Walin's new documentary I Die Daily about the making of The Cremaster Cycle
Two Matthew Barney "Mash-Ups" have been posted, the first comparing Barney's output with that of Madonna, and the second a more visually-based composition combining Cremaster 4 with action sports blooper and beer.
Finally, someone has posted Cremaster 1, 2 and 4 on YouTube (all multi-part). Obviously, it's not the ideal way to view the films, but if you've never seen them here's your chance (at lest until they make YouTube take them down). Full links to all the films are here: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=cremasterfilms&p=r
Cremaster 1 (1 of 4)
Cremaster 2 (1 of 8)
Cremaster 4 (1 of 4)
There are also extracts of Cremaster 3 and 5 posted, but not the whole films.
