DRAWING RESTRAINT 13: Instrument of Surrender

DRAWING RESTRAINT 13: Instrument of Surrender

2006 · 28 min

American WWII soldiers open a mold, exposing a solid architectural structure made entirely of petroleum jelly. The soldiers violently soften the structure with shovels. The wall of a large metal box slams down revealing Douglas MacArthur (played by Matthew Barney) smoking a large corncob pipe. MacArthur wades through the petroleum jelly morass to a Japanese general wearing a top hat. Both generals sign several white plastic tablets with inkless tattoo guns. Over a bunsen burner, Barney heats up a branding iron bearing his insignia and presses it into each white tablet. After each tablet has been signed and branded, Barbara Gladstone, who attends in period attire, ceremonially places a sticker label bearing the work’s name, date, and Gladstone Gallery logo on each tablet.

Directed by Matthew Barney

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Cremaster 3Cremaster 3 · 2002
Cremaster 3
6.62002
MovieDramaFantasy
CREMASTER 3 is set in New York City and narrates the construction of the Chrysler Building, which is in itself a character - host to inner, antagonistic forces at play for access to the process of (spiritual) transcendence. These factions find form in the struggle between Hiram Abiff or the Architect...
Cremaster 2Cremaster 2 · 1999
Cremaster 2
6.31999
MovieFantasyHorror
CREMASTER 2 is rendered as a gothic Western that introduces conflict into the system. On the biological level it corresponds to the phase of fetal development during which sexual division begins. In Matthew Barney's abstraction of this process, the system resists partition and tries to remain in the state of equilibrium imagined in Cremaster 1.
Drawing Restraint 9Drawing Restraint 9 · 2006
Drawing Restraint 9
6.22006
MovieFantasy
The film concerns the theme of self-imposed limitation and continues Matthew Barney's interest in religious rite, this time focusing on Shinto.
Cremaster 5Cremaster 5 · 1997
Cremaster 5
6.01997
MovieDramaMusic
CREMASTER 5 is a five-act opera (sung in Hungarian) set in late-ninteenth century Budapest. The last film in the series, it represents the moment when the testicles are finally released and sexual differentiation is fully attained. The lamenting tone of the opera suggests that Barney invisions this as a moment of tragedy and loss. The primary character is the Queen of Chain (played by Ursula Andress). Barney, himself, plays three characters who appear in the mind of the Queen: her Diva, Magician, and Giant. The Magician is a stand-in for Harry Houdini, who was born in Budapest in 1874 and appears as a recurring character in the Cremaster cycle.
Cremaster 4Cremaster 4 · 1995
Cremaster 4
6.01995
MovieFantasy
CREMASTER 4 adheres most closely to the project's biological model. This penultimate episode describes the system's onward rush toward descension despite its resistance to division. The logo for this chapter is the Manx triskelion - three identical armored legs revolving around a central axis. Set on the Isle of Man, the film absorbs the island's folklore...
River of FundamentRiver of Fundament · 2014
River of Fundament
5.92014
MovieDramaFantasy
Visionary artist Matthew Barney returns to cinema with this 3-part epic, 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.
Cremaster 1Cremaster 1 · 1996
Cremaster 1
5.71996
MovieComedyMusic
CREMASTER 1 is a musical revue performed on the blue Astroturf playing field of Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho - Matthew Barney's hometown. Two Goodyear Blimps float above the arena like the airships that often transmit live sporting events via television broadcast. Four air hostesses tend to each blimp. The only sound is soft ambient music, which suggests the hum of the engines.
DestrictedDestricted · 2006
Destricted
4.32006
MovieDramaRomance
A compilation of erotic films intended to illuminate the points where art meets sexuality.
Skinned DeepSkinned Deep · 2004
Skinned Deep
4.12004
MovieComedyHorror
An ordinary family goes on a trip by car, but their car breaks down. The dutiful father of the family immediately sets off to get help and seems to find it with a nice elderly lady. The woman invites the whole family to dinner, but the hospitality soon turns out to be an ambush.
HoistHoist · 2006
Hoist
4.02006
Movie
Commissioned as part of the Destricted Short Film Series, 'Hoist' was shot in Bahia, Salvador. It's described by the director as "a juxtaposition of sexuality and industrial machinery".
RedoubtRedoubt · 2019
Redoubt
2.72019
MovieAdventureFantasy
The goddess Diana and her two attendants traverse the rugged terrain of Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains in pursuit of the elusive wolf. An Engraver (Matthew Barney) furtively documents their actions in copper engravings and provokes a series of confrontations. The characters communicate through dance, letting movement replace language as they pursue each other and their prey.
Blood of TwoBlood of Two · 2009
Blood of Two
2009
MovieDocumentaryAdventure
The first collaboration between Matthew Barney & Elizabeth Peyton, Blood of Two is a unique, site-specific work that draws its references from Hydra itself – the surrounding environment, animals, humans, and local traditions are all part of the project in equal measure. Blood of Two centers on the former function of the Slaughterhouse and the customs of Hydra to establish connections between paganism and religion, ancient and modern, the ritualistic and familiar. As much as its conflicted terms strive for balance and fusion, it is Blood of Two’s greater resistance to these impulses, its failure to surrender unconditionally to them that ultimately counts, as a network of overlaps and crisscrosses.
CatasterismCatasterism · 2022
Catasterism
2022
Movie
In September 2021, Barney and Bepler presented a live performance at Schaulager titled ‘Catasterism in Three Movements.’ CATASTERISM draws from documentation of those performances and expands the narrative with cinematic scenes filmed in the galleries and workspaces of Schaulager. The film elaborates on the characters’ private rituals and deploys forensic examinations of artworks within Schaulager to evoke connections between the material qualities of art objects and the ephemeral qualities of the music. The project continues Barney’s and Bepler’s long history of collaborative projects with distinguished musicians in experimental and unconventional settings.
Blind PerineumBlind Perineum · 1991
Blind Perineum
1991
MovieDocumentary
A "video action" in which Barney crosses the ceiling of the Gladstone Gallery using a harness and ice-climbing screws, propelling himself by the forces of muscle and will.
ScabactionScabaction · 1988
Scabaction
1988
Movie
Goo, orifice fixation, medical procedures, non-human/inanimate entities considered as bodies. Scabaction records the welding of a sculpture, some antics with Vaseline, and the removal of an ingrown hair.
Drawing Restraint 23Drawing Restraint 23 · 2015
Drawing Restraint 23
2015
Movie
Presented as part of the exhibition "RIVER OF FUNDAMENT", Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

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