“The film moves at what I consider to be the speed of art—which is slow. Cremaster 2 does what I think sculpture does: It moves slowly and requires that one move around it to understand it, and to visit it repeatedly.”
—Matthew Barney

Goodyear Field, 1996. Self-lubricating plastic, prosthetic plastic, petroleum jelly, silicone, Astroturf, pearlescent vinyl, cast tapioca, cast polyester, polyester ribbon, costume pearls, speculae, and Pyrex, 1.37 x 6.81 x 8.23 m overall

Although his works are usually shown on the screens of movie theaters, first and always Barney considers himself a sculptor. His sculptures are incorporated into his films as part of complex environments.

For the exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, the sculptures, banners, drawings, and photographs produced for each episode are displayed parallel to the videos to provide a conceptual framework. This juxtaposition allows viewers to see relationships, examine details, and consider how the sculptures function differently within the films than they do installed in the galleries.

These three-dimensional works are not cinematic relics or props, but incarnations of the characters and settings. They exist separately from the films, but carry the same content.

Sculpture plays a highly visible role in the Cremaster cycle, and Barney has designed and constructed virtually every element. Barney’s choice of materials is both personal and nontraditional. It includes plastics, beeswax, salt, tapioca, and Vaseline. Many of the materials he chooses exist in several states. Tapioca is a starch that can be solid, liquid, or gelatinous. Barney’s signature medium Vaseline changes from solid to liquid in response to temperature.

Some sculptures are as large as rooms, while containing very small details that might go unnoticed to all but the most astute viewers. Examine the elaborate sculptural containers that Barney has fabricated to hold the laser disks for each of his films. Each incorporates the symbols of the episode contained within elegantly abstracted sculptural form.

Barney’s sculptures frequently combine and mutate familiar objects into totally new amalgamations. An entire thesis could be written on the footwear that appears in his films: shoes equipped with blades for cutting potatoes into pentagonal wedges, shoes that spew grapes into elliptical patterns. One critic commented, “Not since the early Andy Warhol has an artist spent so much energy on footwear.”

Drawing permeates the entire Cremaster cycle. Barney uses drawings to conceptualize ideas and provide detailed storyboards that delineate the films’ thematic flow. Maps and other found materials are sometimes incorporated into the storyboard process. Each episode generates finished works on paper.

• This work is titled Goodyear Field. It is a sculpture from Cremaster 1. What words can you use to describe it?
• What qualities does this work share with more traditional forms of sculpture? In what ways does this work seem unlike what is traditionally considered sculpture?
• This sculpture is made from self-lubricating plastic, prosthetic plastic, petroleum jelly, silicone, Astroturf, pearlescent vinyl, cast tapioca, cast polyester, polyester ribbon, costume pearls, speculae, and Pyrex. How many of the materials do you think you can identify?
• If you were using this sculpture as part of a film, how would you use it? What action would take place here? What narratives can you create that could be played out within this work?
• View the sculptures that Barney has created as containers for the laser discs of his films. How has he organized materials, forms, symbols, and color to express the theme of each film? The cases, known as vitrines, are also designed by Barney and should be considered as integral parts of the work.

Make a plan for an object that appears to be functional but really is not.

Make a plan for an impossible shoe that can perform an unusual task. Through drawings and/or by transforming an ordinary shoe, indicate form, material, use, and user.

Choose an unusual medium from which to make a work of art. Once you have completed your work, describe why this medium was chosen.

Make a list of possible mediums for making art that have the possibility of changing states in response to external forces: temperature, light, pressure, etc. Why might an artist choose to make a work that will change in response to environmental conditions?

After looking carefully at the sculptures that Barney has created as containers for his films, choose an object that is important to you, and create a container constructed specifically to house that object. When you are done, describe your process.