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"CREMASTER
1: Goodyear Chorus," 1995. C-print in self-lubricating plastic
frame; 43 3/4 x 53 3/4 inches. ©1995 Matthew Barney. Photo:
Michael James O'Brien. Courtesy Barbara Gladstone
details: "CREMASTER 1," 1995. Production stills. ©1995 Matthew Barney |
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“CREMASTER 1”
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| "CREMASTER 1"
takes place in a lit, football stadium in Boise, Idaho, and in two
Goodyear blimps that hover over it. The action on the football field
and the action in the two blimps mirror each other, as the two casts
of characters that inhabit each set, enact similar movement and
patterns. The blimps each hold four vaguely bored and sullen flight
attendants, wearing sleek 1930’s uniforms designed by Isaac
Mizrahi. The icy attendants in both blimps sit or stand around a
central table that is draped in a white cloth and covered in grapes
- one blimp’s grapes are purple, the other green. The centerpiece
of the table, and surrounded by the grapes, is a Vaseline-coated
sculpture of the female reproductive system. Underneath each table
in a small, white space created by the draped tablecloth, is the
heroine of "CREMASTER 1," a pale, awkward woman called
Goodyear,
who is outfitted in a white slip and a pair of high heels. From
one of the toes of her shoes protrudes a glass horn. As she begins
to move around in the small space, gingerly poking a hole in the
tablecloth, and then pulling grapes through, the grapes move through
her body and exit from the horn on her shoe, dropping to the floor
where they begin to form geometric patterns. Below the blimps and
their strange activity, an aerial view of the football field shows
a chorus
line of beaming and gliding girls in white and orange hoop skirts
forming the same patterns
as the grapes. The movement on the field and the soundtrack that
accompanies it, is reminiscent of a 1930’s Busby Berkeley musical.
Like all of the movies in Barney’s series, "CREMASTER
1" uses a familiar film genre -here, the 1930’s musical
- to explore his interest in the biology of, and conflicting roles
in, male and female sexuality. While most of the "CREMASTER"
films examine male desire, this video concerns itself with the transformation
of the female body. Ultimately, Goodyear appears on the field smiling
and pulling the two blimps on ropes behind her, as she glides in
front of the chorus line doing a choreographed wave with their hoop
skirts. |
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