Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Eric Doeringer - IPO at the Whitney Museum Friday 9.28


CremasterFanatic.com founder Eric Doeringer will be speaking about his work, including CremasterFanatic.com and The Matthew Barney Show, at the Whitney Museum in New York at 7 pm on Friday, September 28. Eric will be joined by William Powhida, Filip Noterdaeme, Carrie McLaren, and hostess Lisa Levy.

Admission to the Whitney is pay-what-you-wish starting at 6:00 and the first 200 attendees will receive a signed limited-edition print by Eric Doeringer. Reserve tickets at http://www.whitney.org/www/programs/eventcalendar.jsp?cat=1

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Matthew Barney at Sadie Coles HQ


In addition to the Drawing Restraint exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, Londoners will be able to view a Matthew Barney exhibition at the new Sadie Coles Gallery (designed by Douglas Stewart Architects) at 69 South Audley Street. Although for some reason there is no mention of the exhibition on the Sadie Coles web site, other reputable sources report the exhibition will run from September 29 - November 10.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Drawing Restraint at the Serpentine Gallery

We've started receiving reports on the Serpentine Gallery's Drawing Restraint exhibition, including a number of people who ran into Matthew Barney at the exhibition or elsewhere in London. The Serpentine has a "No Photography" policy for the exhibition, but we've been promised a few clandestine photos.

Cremaster Fanatic Andrew sent us some photographs of the Drawing Restraint Volume V book and the following report:






"As you enter the gallery there is a bank of 8 screens showing various drawing restraints and when you move in to the second room there are the vitrines shown in Drawing restraint Volume 1. IN the first of the large rooms is the Ambergris scultpture which is connected via a long white rope to "holographic entrypoint" in a room on the opposite side of the gallery. In the central atrium he performed a drawing restraint where he climbed the four corners of the gallery to draw on the ceiling. He was supposed to do a fifth climb but it couldn't be completed, he described the work as "a beautiful failure". The exhibition catalogue is about 230 pages and is similar in format to Vols 1-3. It spans the whole Drawing restraint series 1-15 and includes a number of previously unseen images. I've attached some photos (sorry about the quality i only had my phone to hand). The limited edition portfolio is beautiful. The eight images are mounted on paper that is signed, numbered and embossed with the field emblem. They are all housed in a huge white self lubricating resin box. Each box has been individually customised by Matthew with a series of scratches/scores and gouges. In total it weighs apporximately 16.5 kilos!

I also went to the film screening last night where he also did a Q&A session afterwards. The films were great and the Q&A session was interesting. I asked him about how Guardian of the Veil (which is what he called it last night so it appears to be the correct title) and how it related to the cremaster films and he said that Guardian fo the veil is hopefully the start of a longer project where he will depict the seven levels of the descent to death (based on a book he read, the name of which completely escapes me at the moment) and that this first one was meant to be a funeral for the cremaster series. He also said that this new series of work will be live pieces done in real time, i hope they get filmed for a showing though! Aftwerwards he was happy to stay around and talk to everyone and he was incredibly friendly and chatty."

Friday, September 21, 2007

Serpentine Gallery Reviews and Interviews



The British press has run a number of articles about Matthew Barney's work to coincide with yesterday's opening of his exhibtion at the Serpentine Gallery.

For some reason, both articles in The Guardian refer to Barney (somewhat derisively) as "the American Damien Hirst." Jonathan Jones's review of the exhibition is fairly negative:

"Barney is only really famous among curators, critics and other artists. The most pop-cultural thing about him is being the boyfriend of the Icelandic singer Björk...[The sculptures at the Serpentine Gallery] relate to Drawing Restraint 9, about to be screened in London, but not at the gallery. It's not that they're bad; you just wonder what they are for. It's the work of an unthinking craftsman, turning out beautifully honed mother-of-pearl objects with no function...The real problem is that Barney's long, beautiful, sterile film Drawing Restraint 9, the source of these works, doesn't itself have the energy of The Cremaster Cycle."

However, Jones does concede, "The Cremaster Cycle, was one of the most striking works of art to come out of America in recent times."

Read the whole article: http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,2172992,00.html

The Guardian also published a more in depth (and positive) article about Barney by Sean O'Hagan. In the article, Bjork says:

"Creatively, Matthew and I take opposite approaches that end in the same point,' she says. 'He enjoys restraint and discipline and thrives on it like a sportsman. Growing up, he had the athlete's attitude to limits. I was in a punk band, ignoring all restraints and embracing freedom. I still seek those heightened moments of freedom in my work. He does it the other way around, if that makes sense."

And Barney says of his process:

"The films are narratives, definitely,' he says. 'In fact, the way I put them together is not so different to the way I read other more conventional narratives. I actually find it very hard to read a book beginning to end and go completely inside that narrative. I have to be able to apply my day-to-day life to that narrative for there to be an even fractured understanding of that book. I have read a number of books where I have no idea what they are about in a narrative sense, but I am pretty confident I have a good sense of what the base of the story is."

Read the whole article: http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2163539,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

The Times's Morgan Falconer has a mixed opinion of Barney:

"For some, Barney’s success is to have found ways to talk about subjects such as sex and gender through fabulous allegories and slick films. Others are attracted to his persuasive yoking of film and sculpture. But for others, Barney’s work is tediously hermetic and self-indulgent. Had he been at all concerned about such accusations, though, he surely would not have engaged Björk to work on this new film, but he says that it simply made sense."

The article concludes with Barney stating that he has planned a trip down the Nile -- no doubt a chance to research imagery for Guarding the Veil.

Read the whole article: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article2482235.ece

If any of our British readers have photos from the Serpentine Gallery opening, please email them to us.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

I Die Daily at IFP New York


If you're in New York for IFP Independent Filmweek, you can see Matthew Wallin's Cremaster Cycle documentary I Die Daily on the big screen. The film will be showing at the Angelika Film Center next Tuesday at 11:00 AM and Thursday at 1:30 PM.

UPDATE: This screening will be a 15-minute edit of the film -- more of a "work in progress" than a polished film.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Serpentine Gallery Contest and Drawing Restraint Volume V Book


The Observer is giving away 125 pairs of tickets to a private view of The Serpentine Gallery's Matthew Barney: Drawing Restraint on September 24. To qualify for the tickets, all you have to do is answer a (very easy) trivia question HERE before midnight tonight. You should also, of course, live in the London area.

The Serpentine Gallery has just announced that they are producing a new publication, Drawing Restraint Volume V, to accompany the exhibition. "This lavishly illustrated publication will include new texts on Barney’s Drawing Restraint series by New York-based writer and curator Neville Wakefield, Serpentine Gallery’s Chief Curator Kitty Scott and a short story by the award-winning Icelandic poet and lyricist Sjón. The book will also include previously unpublished images of Barney’s recent artworks."

http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2007/09/drawing_restraint_volume_vmatt.html

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Free Matthew Barney Paper Dolls in San Francisco


Head Cremaster Fanatic Eric Doeringer will be showing his Matthew Barney Paper Dolls in the Three Years and Counting exhibition at TART, 47 Lusk Alley, San Francisco, from September 14 - October 12. Visitors to the gallery can pick up a free paper doll (including outfits from Barney's roles in The Cremaster Cycle) to color and cut out. If you can't make it to TART, the paper dolls are also featured in the first issue of the Cremaster Fanatic Fanzine. We still have a few issues left for $5 postpaid. Email info (at) cremasterfanatic.com if you want to buy a copy.

Eric will also be talking about his work, including CremasterFanatic.com and The Matthew Barney Show, at the Whitney Museum in New York at 7 pm on September 28.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Matthew Barney at the Serpentine Gallery


The Serpentine Gallery in London will present an exhibition of Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint series from September 20 - November 11. The exhibition will include works from each Drawing Restraint from 1 through 15. In conjunction with the Serpentine, the Gate Picturehouse is screening Drawing Restraint 9 throughout the fall.

Barney will appear at a couple of events during the opening of the exhibition. On September 20, Barney and Hans-Ulrich Obrist will appear in conversation and present a special screening of Drawing Restraint 9. On September 21 Barney will screen three short films: Scab Action, Drawing Restraint 13, and De Lama Lamina.

The Serpentine Gallery is offering an exclusive Limited Edition of 25 boxed-sets of 8 signed and numbered photogravure prints, created by Matthew Barney. The prints are presented in a special box designed and produced by the artist. The edition is priced at £9,500 for the set of 8 prints.