Cremaster 4 & 5

Wednesday, May 19 - Thursday, June 10, 2010

CREMASTER 4 (1994, 42 min.)

Adheres most closely to the project’s biological model, describing the system’s onward rush toward descension despite its resistance to division. The Loughton Candidate (played by Barney) is a satyr with two sets of impacted sockets in his head – two arcing upward, two down, with ascension and descension coexisting in equilibrium. Two motorcycle sidecar teams – the Ascending and Descending Hacks – race in opposite directions while gelatinous gonadal forms – undifferentiated internal sex organs – emerge from slots in their uniforms in a migratory quest for directionality.

CREMASTER 5 (1997, 54 min.)

When total descension is finally achieved, it is envisioned as a tragic love story told in the form of a lyric opera and set in the romantic dreamscape of late-nineteenth-Century Budapest. Biological metaphors are replaced by emotional states – longing and despair – that become musical leitmotivs in the orchestral score. The opera’s primary characters – the Queen of Chain (played by Ursula Andress) and her Diva, Magician, and Giant (all played by Barney) – enact collectively the final release promised by the project as a whole.

• Director Matthew Barney

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