Tickets on Sale for New Matthew Barney Film at BAM

Tickets are now on sale for the premier of Matthew Barney's new film, River of Fundament, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The film, clocking in at nearly six hours (including two intermissions), will have a single daily screening from February 12 - 16. From BAM's web site:

"Visionary artist Matthew Barney makes his BAM debut with the world premiere screening of River of Fundament, a radical reinvention of Norman Mailer’s novel Ancient Evenings. In collaboration with composer Jonathan Bepler, Barney combines traditional modes of narrative cinema with filmed elements of performance, sculpture, and opera, reconstructing Mailer’s hypersexual story of Egyptian gods and the seven stages of reincarnation, alongside the rise and fall of the American car industry.

The film’s central scene is an abstraction of Mailer’s wake, set in a replica of the late author’s apartment in Brooklyn Heights and featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Paul Giamatti, Elaine Stritch, Ellen Burstyn, Joan La Barbara, and jazz percussionist Milford Graves. Alluring and intense, this epic, multidimensional experience is a sprawling allegory of death and rebirth within the contemporary American landscape."

Purchase tickets HERE.

River of Fundament to Premier at Brooklyn Academy of Music

Matthew Barney's new film River of Fundament will premier at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this winter. There will be a single daily screening of the 5-hour film from February 12 - 16. The film's cast includes Paul Giamatti, Ellen Burstyn, Elaine Stritch, Maggie Gyllenhaal, vocalist Joan La Barbara, model and paralympic athlete Aimee Mullins (who starred in Cremaster 3), jazz percussionist Milford Graves, and John Buffalo Mailer (son of Norman Mailer, who appeared in Cremaster 2 and whose novel Ancient Evenings provided the basis for Barney's River of Fundament).

Cremaster Fanatic got to attend a day of the River of Fundament shoot last summer. We promise, we will post more about the film shoot soon! But, in the meantime, here are a few photos. The film looks like it will be epic!

River of Fundament to Premier at Park Avenue Armory in 2014

GalleristNY reports that Matthew Barney's River of Fundament will appear at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City in 2014. There are few details at the moment (and the Armory has not confirmed the news) but it will apparently be a 6-hour "operatic film project" with a "huge" cast. It is unclear whether there will be live performers or if the opera will unfold entirely on film, but there will undoubtedly be a sculptural installation in the Armory's massive drill hall.

Cremaster Fanatic was able to sit in on a day of shooting at the River of Fundament set at the Brooklyn Navy Yard a few weeks ago. We've been too busy to post our photographs, but hope to have them online soon - keep watching this space!

Matthew Barney Live at the New York Public Library

In conjunction with his upcoming drawing retrospective at the Morgan Library, Matthew Barney will be speaking at the New York Public Library on May 21, as part of the LIVE from the NYPL series (note: the lecture will be held at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building - aka the "main" library on 5th Ave & 42nd St. - not at the Morgan). Barney will be speaking with the New York Public Library's Paul Holdengräber. You can find more information and purchase tickets HERE. The talk will evenutally be archived on the library's web site.

Matthew Barney Drawing Retrospective and Film Premier

New York City's Morgan Library will hold a retrospective exhibition of Matthew Barney's drawings from May 10 - September 2. Titled Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney, it will be the first museum exhibition dedicated to Barney's drawings, featuring approximately 100 works from his undergraduate years in the 1980's to more recent drawings inspired by Norman Mailer's novel Ancient Evenings. The exhibition will include storyboards for Barney's films and videos, sketches, magazine clippings, and postcards, plus related rare books, medieval manuscripts, and drawings from the Morgan collection selected by Matthew Barney including a 2,000-year-old Egyptian Book of the Dead, a medieval zodiac and a copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. After it's run at the Morgan, the exhibition will travel to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, where it is scheduled to open in October (with supplemental materials drawn from the Bibliothèque's collection replacing those from the Morgan's). On July 13 and 14, Barney and one of his frequent collaborators, the composer Jonathan Bepler, will discuss their work and premier selections from a new film called River of Fundament at the Manchester International Festival in the UK (Barney presented the performance The Guardian of the Veil at the festival in 2007). River of Fundament is a projected seven part film project that draws upon the thematic undercurrents of Mailer’s Ancient Evenings, combining the traditions of narrative cinema with elements of live performance, sculpture and opera. Each film will correspond to one of the seven stages of the soul’s journey from death to rebirth in accordance with Egyptian mythology. Barney plans to present River of Fundament at opera houses and theatres internationally beginning in 2014.

Matthew Barney Floats Norman Mailer's House Down The East River

The Wall Street Journal has published a lengthy article about the filming of Matthew Barney's River of Fundament. The film is the latest installment in Barney's Ancient Evenings series, based on a book Norman Mailer about the Egyptian afterlife. Barney began working on the sculptural components for River of Fundament last August in his Long Island City, Queens studio and has been filming in New York City. Perhaps the most remarkable element is a life-sized floating replica of Mailer's four-story Brooklyn brownstone. The house has been filled with items borrowed from Mailer's actual home. A tugboat towed the building down the East River from Barney's studio to the Brooklyn Bridge for a film shoot, where an actress playing Norman Mailer's widow sang Walt Whitman's poetry to the bridge.

The cast of River of Fundament includes well-known actors Paul Giamatti and Maggie Gyllenhaal, as well as paralympic athlete Aimee Mullins (who appeared as the Entered Novitiate in Barney's Cremaster 3) and avant-garde vocalist Joan La Barbara. In addition, Norman Mailer's son John Buffalo Mailer (pictured above) will appear in the film, playing a reincarnation of his father. The younger Mailer told the WSJ, "I've been lucky enough to know two geniuses in my life. My father is one and Matthew Barney is the other. I think my dad is up there dancing a jig he's so happy about how Matthew has taken the ball and run with this." In addition to Mailer's floating home, props for the film have included a cow carcass containing a surprise fetus, rotting pigs, two 12,000-pound blocks of salt and a gold 1979 Trans Am that was plunged into Newtown Creek (a polluted industrial waterway separating Brooklyn and Queens). Shooting will pause for the winter, but a large-scale performance in New York is planned for next spring.

Visit Matthew Barney's Studio!

The Tate Gallery in England has teamed up with The Ultimate Travel Company to offer a trip to New York City that includes a visit to Matthew Barney's studio. The trip, called New York: The Performance of Style, runs for five days from November 7 – 12 and costs £2,345 ($3,788) per person (for a double-occupancy room in the Meatpacking district). In addition to Matthew Barney's studio, travelers will visit the studio of artist Sarah Sze, the Whitney Musueum, PS1, MoMA, and the Brooklyn Museum. The Tate does not promise that Matthew Barney will be present during the studio visit, but this rare behind-the-scenes look should please any Cremaster fanatic!

Djed to be Anchored by 25-ton Iron Sculpture

Gladstone Gallery has issued a press release for Matthew Barney's Djed exhibition, opening September 17. The show will consist of drawings and three monumental sculptures made from iron, bronze, lead and copper. The artwork relates to Ancient Evenings, Barney's multi-part site-specific opera based on a Norman Mailer book about a man's journey through the seven stages of the ancient Egyptian afterlife. The exhibition's centerpiece will be a massive sculpture cast from 25 tons of iron during Barney's Khu performance in Detroit last year. This sculpture is based on the undercarriage of a Chrysler Imperial that has been modified to resemble a djed (a pillar-like hieroglyph representing the Egyptian god Osiris' power). First appearing in Cremaster 3, the 1967 Chrysler Imperial is a central element in Barney's Ancient Evenings that is often interpreted as a stand-in for Barney (who was born in 1967). The exhibition continues through October 22.

Matthew Barney Djed at Gladstone Gallery NY Sept. 17

Matthew Barney will exhibit new sculpture related to his Ancient Evenings series at Gladstone Gallery in New York this fall. The exhibtion, titled Djed, runs from September 17 - October 22nd. There is no word about whether the exhibition will include any video or if a performance will be staged in New York to coincide with the show.

According to Wikipedia, "The Djed symbol is a pillar-like ancient Egyptian symbol representing stability. It has been interpreted as the backbone of the Egyptian god Osiris...During the Renewal Festival, the djed would be ceremonially raised as a phallic symbol symbolising the 'potency and duration of the pharaoh's rule'...semen (or more generally spoken - the source of life) was [believed by the Egyptians to be] formed from spinal fluid...[thus] the essence of life starts here in the Ankh - it flows down through the vertebral canal, past the strong base of the spine (the Djed), and out through the penis."

Matthew Barney at IFC FIlm Center New York

The Cremaster Cycle is coming to the IFC Film Center in New York City from May 19 - June 3. One ticket will admit you to a double-feature of Cremaster 1 & 2 or Cremaster 4 & 5, or a single screening of Cremaster 3. There is also a special ticket available for $30 that will allow you to watch the consecutive screenings of all five films. Matthew Barney, himself, will appear for a Q&A following the 7pm screening of Cremaster 4 & 5 on May 20. This show will probably sell out quickly, so buy your tickets now! For more information (or to order tickets), visit the IFC Film Center web site.

Matthew Barney at the National Arts Club

We at Cremaster Fanatic weren't feeling well last Friday, so we missed Matthew Barney's appearance at the National Arts Club. Barney's partner Bjork was also apparently unable to attend, but their daughter Isadora was there, drawing pictures and dancing. Other celebrity sightings include paralympic athlete Aimee Mullins (the "Cheetah Woman" from Cremaster 2), gallerists Barbara Gladstone and Mary Boone, fashion designers Lizzie Fortunato and Timo, film director Michael Gondry, and artist Will Cotton. Music for the event was provided by the Beatrice Inn’s D.J. Rian Fossett and the group Fluxconcert.

Barney, pictured above with National Arts Club president Aldon James, was awarded the Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement in Art. Apparently, Barney's acceptance speech was limited to a brief "Thank you."

You can see more pictures from the evening at http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/R8d5a-EDBfI/National+Arts+Club+Honors+Matthew+Barney/0jcpqL1daIg
Additional coverage:
Oly's Musings
Vanity Fair
New York Sun

Matthew Barney Guardian of the Veil at Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Matthew Barney, "Guardian of the Veil: Norman Mailer", 2007.



Matthew Barney, "Guardian of the Veil: Sons of Horus", 2007.



Matthew Barney, "Guardian of the Veil: The Adoration of Norman Mailer", 2007.



Matthew Barney, "Guardian of the Veil: Trans Am", 2007.

Matthew Barney is exhibiting a series of drawings from Guardian of the Veil (finally, an end to the confusion over whether the correct title is "Guardian" or "Guarding") and some photographs from Cremaster 3 at Regen Projects, 633 North Almont Drive, Los Angeles, CA, through January 19.

From the gallery's press release:

"Guardian of the Veil is the first in a series of performances Barney gave in his studio (Queens, NY) in April 2007 and then repeated in the Il Tempo del Postino exhibition in Manchester, England in July 2007. In this performance Barney used remnants from the Cremaster Cycle (principally Cremaster 3) combined with a new narrative based on elements from Norman Mailer's novel, Ancient Evenings. The Cremaster Cycle examines and follows a developing life from its inception to its inevitable end. In the Guardian of the Veil the narrative follows a protagonist who died in a fire and begins his journey through the seven stages of death toward eternal after-life. This examination of eternal life is in opposition to the trajectory of the Cremaster Cycle and sets up the conflict presented in Guardian of the Veil.

Drawn on black paper using graphite and petroleum jelly the drawings from Guardian of the Veil convey Barney's inimitable, almost surrealistic hand. As a vehicle for the narrative, the fantastical and exuberant drawings function as a story-telling device. In one drawing a decorated bull is seen mounting a Chrysler Imperial car buried in an Egyptian pyramid, seemingly its final resting place. Pictorially conflicting imagery of eternal life after death and the creation of life leading to its ultimate demise is apparent and at odds."

Back on the East Coast, Barney also has a piece in the Mask exhibition at James Cohan Gallery, 533 W 26th Street, NYC, through January 26 (which, of course, is only six blocks from CremasterFanatic.com's Matthew Barney installation at Sara Tecchia Roma New York, 529 W 20th St, 2nd Floor).

Cremaster Fanatic Matthew Barney Exhibition at Sara Tecchia New York Opening Dec. 18

First off, we apologize for going so long without posting. This has been a hectic month, we hope to do better in the new year.

CremasterFanatic.com founder Eric Doeringer has created an installation of Matthew Barney photographs, collectibles, and fan art for the exhibition "And, Who Are You?" at Sara Tecchia, 529 West 20th Street, 2nd Floor, New York City. The exhibition runs from December 18 - January 26. We hope you will join us at the opening reception from 6 - 8 on December 18.

Bjork and Matthew Barney Shopping for Manhattan Condo

New York real estate blog curbed.com reports that Matthew Barney and Bjork were recently outbid on a penthouse loft in Manhattan's new Machinery Exchange at the corner of Baxer and Hester Streets in Chinatown / Little Italy. According to the building's web site, the penthouse apartment was being offered for $4.5 million -- no word on the final sale price.

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.

Bjork's Yacht Moored in Long Island City

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.'"

Photo by Lois Weiss, courtesy of Curbed.