Matthew Barney

Matthew Barney is an American filmmaker, performance artist, and sculptor who created the well-known, and much talked about, Cremaster Cycle:



Last night I got the chance to hear him speak at the DIA about some of his new work. His inspiration was Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer, a story that details the stages of death a person enters according to Ancient Egyptian beliefs. He sees the story in seven distinct acts, the first of which was performed in Los Angeles. Now Barney is working in Detroit. He began by filming a preface that was inspired by Ancient Evenings as well as the work of James Lee Byars, a Detroit artist, and Harry Houdini who's first jump was off a bridge in Detroit.

Just to hear about what works inspired such an amazing artist and how those inspirations came together was really interesting because I think most people pull ideas from a lot of places and he uses not only interesting inspiration, but he's very good at articulating his thoughts on different subjects. I also think the reason his work is so elusive is because he finds inspiration in obscure things of which most people are unaware. If anything, I am inspired to dig deeper, read more, and find new topics that aren't already on the surface of society today.

Also, I ordered Ancient Evenings on a whim when I got home last night because I'm going to read it for my Creative Writing class. Apparently Mailer is one of the great modern American writers (and yet I've never read any of his work). The book took him almost ten years to write and got many negative reviews, but from the what I've read, it's very descriptive, interesting, and different. I'm ready to read something completely new. I just can't wait for it to get here...