Saturday, April 27, 2013

The Cremaster Cycle

Is anyone else a little confused bny the Cremaster Cycle?  I can't find much information on it, and watching the trailer certainly didn't help (but if you'd like to see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xWtS9HsP4U).  This lack of information seems to be in part due to the fact that it was never really made publically available, and only a small number of DVDs have ever been produced.  This seems very elitist.  It also appears strange when put in the context of the mass media art that we've recently been discussing.

1 comment:

wkuehne said...

I agree Ben. But I think Matthew Barney's intent was to use the show as a work of art, and very few pieces of art are available to masses of people simultaneously. What I mean by that is you can't see a piece of art in person with 500 other people like you can a movie. Seeing artwork is much more personal. To see the Mona Lisa, arguably the most famous and commonly cited and sighted artwork in the world, you have to wade through hundreds of people to be one of the ten or so actual viewers of the paiting, so by making Cremaster less available, perhaps Barney is trying to make the viewing experience more intimate. For instance, he might show the movie at an art gallery, or a small movie theatre more as an installation than a feature length film. By doing that, Barney bridges the gap between artwork and movies.