Matthew Barney Purim Costume

Cremaster Fanatic Gilad sent us photos of himself dressed as Barney's "Entered Apprentice" character from Cremaster 3 for this year's Purim celebration in Israel. For those unfamiliar with Purim, it is "a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people of the ancient Persian Empire from Haman's plot to annihilate them, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther (Megillat Esther). According to the story, Haman cast lots to determine the day upon which to exterminate the Jews." (quoted from Wikipedia) It is a festive celebration which generally includes masquerade.
You can see more photos of Gilad's costume at http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Purim%20Barney&w=all and pictures of other Matthew Barney-themed costumes (including Gilad's 2006 Purim costume) on the CremasterFanatic.com Fan Costume Page

We hear rumors that Matthew Barney is currently in New York City. If any of Cremaster Fanatics out there get pictures of him at the various Armory Show events this weekend, please email them to us.

Matthew Barney Stills and Downloads

The art torrents blog has posted a bunch of rare stills from Matthew Barney videos and documentaries, plus links to downloads (if you're a Karagara member).

Bono Buys Matthew Barney Photograph

Matthew Barney donated the photograph New Sun (pictured above) to the (Red) Auction, held on Valentine's Day at Sotheby's New York. The auction was organized by Damien Hirst and singer Bono to benefit Bono's (Red) Charity, which combats AIDS in Africa. Barney's photograph (from Drawing Restraint 9) sold for $137,500, well above the pre-sale estimate of $70,000 - $90,000. Reportedly, the purchaser was Bono, himself, who also placed winning bids on works by Robert Rauschenberg and Sean Scully.

Matthew Barney Drawing Restraint Vol. V Book Available for Pre-Order

Cremaster Fanatic Steve sent us an email to let us know that the Drawing Restraint Vol. V catalog published in conjunction with Barney's Drawing Restraint exhibition at London's Serpentine Gallery is now available in the US for pre-order on Amazon.com at the discounted price of $40.95 (plus an additional 5% pre-order discount). The book will be released in the US on March 1.

Pre-Order Drawing Restraint Vol. V from Amazon.com

New Matthew Barney Videos on YouTube

A recent search on YouTube has turned up a bunch of new Matthew Barney videos:



First up is the trailer for Destricted - a compilation of sexually explicit films by contemporary artists that includes Barney's Hoist This one is definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK.



Next is "One Minute Barney" (which actually clocks in at 1:12). It claims to be "all you need to know about matthew in under 90 seconds" but that's only if you think that "all you need to know" is Cremaster 1, 4, and 5. However, it's a nicely-edited montage of clips from those three films.



A somewhat gory addition to the Matthew Barney "fan video" genre is "Cremaster 6". It purports to be Barney's "last work" in which, "the artist proposes a trip to the balance across castration." However, as one critic comments, "There are only 5 films in the Cremaster cycle and this is not one of them. There is no Barney in this piece. This is either a cheezy attempt to equate the work of an unknown with that of a top-tier artist or a clumsy attempt at parody." Other comments are, "this totally didnt make any sense," and "cool," which, coincidentally, are the same reactions Barney's actual films often elicit.



Finally, we come to Uruguayan artist Martin Sastre's video "Lala Meets Barney". As we noted in our post about Sastre's recent exhibition at Brooklyn's Momenta Art, this video is an invitation from Sastre's grandmother to Matthew Barney and Björk to spend a traditional Uruguayan Christmas with her and her 6 children and 13 grandchildren.

For more Matthew Barney videos online, check out CremasterFanatic.com "fan video" section and our last post of Matthew Barney YouTube video clips.

Also, we'd like to remind you that this is the final week you can view CremasterFanatic.com founder Eric Doeringer's Matthew Barney installation at Sara Tecchia Roma New York, 529 W 20th St, 2nd Floor, New York City. The exhibition "And, Who Are You?" Work From Saatchi Online runs through Saturday, January 26.