Matthew Barney Live in LA June 4

Matthew Barney will be speaking at the "Can Art and Politics Be Thought?" conference at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on June 4. Barney will appear in conversation with Drew Daniel of the group Matmos (who have collaborated with Bjork) as part of a symposium starting at 1 pm (it's not clear what time Barney will go on -- there are three other speakers). The program is free: tickets are available on a first come, first served basis at the Billy Wilder Theater Box Office starting at noon (no reserve tickets). More info at http://ect.humnet.ucla.edu/

Late Night Cremaster Marathon in Chicago May 24

Chicago-area Cremaster Fanatics can catch a late-night screening of the entire Cremaster Cycle starting at 10 pm on May 24 at Late Bar (3534 Belmont Ave.). We suspect this is an "unauthorized" screening so the quality of the projection may be iffy, but when else will you be able to enjoy a few cocktails while watching the Cremaster Cycle?

Matthew Barney to Speak at College of Idaho Commencement

Matthew Barney, who lived in Boise for more than a decade as a boy (Cremaster Fanatics know that the football stadium sequences in Cremaster 1 were filmed in Boise), will deliver this year's commencement address at The College of Idaho. The college will celebrate commencement at 10 AM on Saturday, May 21, in Morrison Quadrangle at the heart of campus. Tickets are not required and directions can be found at http://www.collegeofidaho.edu/commencement If you are unable to attend in person, you can watch a live feed at http://www.collegeofidaho.edu/webcam/Commencement.asp

Drawing Restraint 17 Premier

Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 17 had its North American premier yesterday at the San Francisco International Film Festival (Barney was on hand to receive the SFIFF's Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award). The film was shot at the Schaulager museum in Basel, Switzerland (which hosted Barney's 2010 Prayer Sheet With The Wound And The Nail exhibition) and features similar imagery to other films in the Drawing Restraint series. However, unlike the other DR films, it features several split-screen sequences and introduces a female protagonist (played by rock climber Emily Harrington) who scales the modernist architecture of the Scahulager. According to the SFIFF's web site, "Barney portrays an artist supervising the construction of a sculpture made from rotting wood beams, while on the fecund bucolic grounds of the exurban Goetheanum, a blonde woman tills worm-rich soil before embarking on a picturesque tram ride to the museum, where she engages in a dizzying interaction."