CREMASTER 1(1995) is a musical revue
performed on the blue Astroturf
playing field of Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho - 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. In the middle of each cabin
interior sits a white-
clothed table, it's top decorated with an abstract centerpiece sculpted
from
Vaseline and surrounded by clusters of grapes. In one blimp
the grapes are
green, in the other they are purple. Under both of these
otherwise identical
tables resides Goodyear (played by Marti Domination). Inhabiting
both blimps
simultaneously, this doubled creature sets the narrative in
motion. After prying
an opening in the tablecloth(s) above her head, she plucks grapes
from their stems
and pulls them down into her cell. With these grapes,
Goodyear produces diagrams
that direct the choreographic patterns created by a troupe of
dancing girls on the
field below. The camera switches back and forth between
Goodyear's drawings and
aerial views of the chorus girls moving into formation:
their designs shift from
parallel lines to the figure of a barbell, from a large circle to
an outline of splitting
and multiplying cells, and from a horizontally divided field
emblem (Barney's
signature motif) to a rendering of an undifferentiated
reproductive system (which
marks the first six weeks of fetal development). Gliding in
time to the musical score,
the chorus girls delineate the contours of a still-androgynous
gonadal structure, which
echoes the shapes of the two blimps overhead, and symbolizes a
state of pure potential.
TWO
CREMASTER 2 (1999) 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. Cremaster 2 embodies this regressive impulse
through its looping narrative,
moving from 1977, the year of Gary Gilmore's execution, to 1893, when
Harry Houdini,
who may have been Gilmore's grandfather, performed at the World's
Columbian Exposition.
The film is structured around three interrelated themes - the
landscape as witness, the
story of Gilmore (played by Barney), and the life of bees - that
metaphorically describe
the potential of moving backward in order to escape one's
destiny. Both Gilmore's kinship
to Houdini (played by Norman Mailer) and his correlation with the
male bee are established
in the séance/conception scene in the beginning of the
film, during which Houdini's spirit
is summoned and Gilmore's father expires after fertilizing his
wife. Gilmore's sense of
his own doomed role as drone is expressed in the ensuing sequence in a
recording studio
where Dave Lombardo, former drummer of Slayer, is playing a solo
to the sound of swarming
bees. A man shrouded by bees with the voice of Steve
Tucker, lead vocalist of Morbid
Angel, growls into a telephone. Collectively these figures allude
to Johnny Cash, who is said
to have called Gilmore on the night of his execution in response
to the convict's dying wish.
Barney depicts Gilmore's murder of a Mormon gas station attendant in
both
sculptural and dramatic forms. Inferring that Gilmore killed out
of a longing for
union with his girlfriend, Nicole Baker, he represents their
relationship through two
conjoined cars: the blue and the white 1966 Mustangs that they
coincidentally both
owned. In the murder sequence, Gilmore shoots his victim in the
back of the head.
This act sets in motion the trial and verdict that will condemn him to
death, a
sentence he embraces despite all efforts to overturn it. Barney
stages the judgment
of Gilmore in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Gilmore welcomes
death, refusing
to appeal his sentence and opting for execution by firing squad, in a
literal
interpretation of the Mormon belief that blood must be shed in order
for a sinner
to obtain salvation. His execution is staged as a prison rodeo in
a cast-salt arena
in the middle of the flooded Bonneville Salt Flats. Gilmore is
lowered onto a bull
and he rides to his death. In Barney's interpretation of the
execution, Gilmore
was less interested in attaining Mormon redemption than in performing a
chron-
ological two-step that would return him to the space of his alleged
grandfather,
Houdini, with whom he identified the notion of freedom thru
self-transformation.
Seeking escape from his fate, he chose death in an act of
ultimate self-will.
Gilmore's metaphoric transportation back to the turn of the century is
rendered
in a dance sequence featuring the Texas two-step. The film
ends in the Columbian
Exposition hall where Houdini is approached by Gilmore's
grandmother Baby Fay La Foe
who will seduce him, an act that sets in motion the circular
narrative of Cremaster 2.
THREE
CREMASTER 3 (2002)
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
(played by Richard
Serra), and the Entered Apprentice (played by Barney), who are
both working on the
building. They are reenacting the Masonic myth of Hiram Abiff,
purported architect
of Solomon's Temple, who possessed knowledge of the mysteries of
the universe.
The murder and resurrection of Abiff are reenacted during Masonic
initiation rites
as the culmination of a three-part process through which a
candidate progresses
from the first degree of Entered Apprenticeship to the third of
Master Mason.
After a prologue steeped in Celtic mythology, the narrative
begins under the
foundation of the partially constructed Chrysler Building. A female
corpse digging
her way out of a grave is the undead Gary Gilmore, protagonist of
Cremaster 2.
Teleported to the
Chrysler Building's lobby.
The pallbearers deposit her in the back seat of a Chrysler
Imperial New Yorker. During
this scene, the camera cross-cuts to images of the Apprentice
troweling cement over
carved fuel-tank caps on the rear chassis of five 1967 Chrysler
Crown Imperials, each
bearing the insignia of a Cremaster episode. Packed with
cement, these caps will
serve as battering rams in a demolition derby about to begin. The
Apprentice then
scales one of the building's elevator shafts until reaching a car
resting between floors.
Using this cabin as a mold, he pours cement to cast the perfect
ashlar, a symmetrically
hewn stone that symbolizes moral rectitude in Masonic
ritual. By circumventing
the carving process to create the perfect ashlar, the Apprentice has
cheated
in his rites of passage and has sabotaged the construction of the
building.
The ensuing scene in the Chrysler Building's Cloud Club bar is a
slapstick routine
between bartender and Apprentice. Almost everything goes
wrong; & these humorous
mishaps result in the bartender playing his environment like a
bagpipe. The various
accidents leading up to this are caused by a woman (played by
Aimee Mullins) in an
adjoining room, who is cutting potatoes with blades on her shoes
and stuffing them
under the foundation of the bar until it is no longer level - a
condition that echoes the
corrupted state of the tower. This interlude is interrupted by a
scene shift to a race
track, where the Apprentice is accosted by hitmen who break all his
teeth in retribution
for his deception. Back in the Cloud Club, he is escorted to a
dental office, where he
is stripped of his clothes, under which he is wearing the costume
of the First Degree
Masonic initiate. An apron of flesh obtrudes from his navel,
referencing the lambskin
aprons worn by Masonic candidates as a symbol for the state of
innocence before the Fall.
The Architect confronts his opponent in the dental suite, fitting the
compressed remains of the Imperial New Yorker into the
Apprentice's mouth
like a pair of dentures. At that moment, the
Apprentice's intestines prolapse
through his rectum. This ceremonious disembowelment symbolically
separates
him from his lower self. For his hubris he is simultaneously punished
and redeemed
by the Architect - whose own hubris, however, equally knows no
bounds. Returning
to his office, and anxious about the tower's slow progress, the
Architect constructs
two pillars that allude to the columns, Jachin and Boaz, designed by
Abiff for
Solomon's Temple. Meanwhile, the Apprentice escapes from the dental lab
and
climbs to the top of the tower. The Architect uses his columns as
a ladder and climbs
through an oculus in the ceiling. The next scene describes
an apotheosis, the Architect
becoming one with his design, as the tower itself is transformed
into a maypole.
At this point in the narrative the film pauses for a choric interlude,
which rehearses
the initiation rites of the Masonic fraternity through
allegorical representations of the
five-part Cremaster cycle, all in the guise of a game staged in
the Guggenheim Museum.
Called “The Order,” this competition features a fantastical
incarnation of the Appren-
tice as its sole contestant, who must overcome obstacles on each level
of the museum's
spiraling rotunda. In the ensuing scene,
which returns to the top of the Chrysler
Building, the Architect is murdered by the Apprentice, who is
then killed by
the tower. Both men have been punished for their hubris and the
building will
remain unfinished. The film ends with a coda that links it
to Cremaster 4. This
is the legend of Fionn MacCumhail, which describes the formation
of the Isle
of Man, where the next installment of the Cremaster cycle will
take place.
FOUR
CREMASTER 4(1994) 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 as well as its more recent
incarnation
as host to the Tourist Trophy motorcycle race. Myth and
machine combine to
narrate a story of candidacy, which involves a trial of the will
articulated by a series
of passages and transformations. The film comprises
three main character zones.
The Loughton Candidate (played by Barney) is a satyr with two
sets of impacted
sockets in his head - four nascent horns, which will eventually grow
into those of the
mature, Loughton Ram, an ancient breed native to the island.
Its horns - two arcing
upward, two down - form a diagram that proposes a condition of
undifferentiation,
with ascension and descension coexisting in equilibrium. The
second and third
character zones comprise a pair of motorcycle sidecar teams: the
Ascending and
Descending Hacks. These primary characters are attended to
by a trio of fairies
who mirror the three narrative fields occupied by the Candidate and the
two racing
teams. Having no volition of their own, these creatures
metamorphose in accordance
with whatever field they occupy at any given time.
Cremaster 4 begins and ends
in a building on the end of Queen's Pier. As the film
starts, the Candidate is being
prepared by the fairies for a journey. The motorcycle
race begins, and each team
speeds off in opposite directions. The camera cuts back and
forth between the race
and the Candidate, who is tap-dancing his way through a slowly eroding
floor.
As the bikes vie for the title, the camera pulls in for close-up shots
of the riders'
torsos.
Gelatinous gonadal forms - undifferentiated internal sex organs -
emerge from slots in their uniforms in a migratory quest for
directionality.
In the case of the Ascending Hack, the organs move upward toward a
second
set of slots in the leather. With the Descending Hack, they
ooze downward.
Back at the pier, the Candidate plunges through the floor into the sea
and heads
toward the island. At the moment of his fall - a transition
from the utopian realm
of pregenital oneness to that of bifurcation - the Ascending Hack
collides with a
stone embankment and the Descending Hack pulls off the course for a pit
stop,
where the fairies service its motorcycle. The Candidate
reaches land and begins
to burrow his way up into the body of the island through a
curving channel that he
must navigate in order to reach the finish line, where the two
Hacks will converge.
This conduit leads him to a bluff, where the fairies are having a
picnic. They
frolic in a game that mirrors the conflict enacted by the principal
characters,
but with none of the tension. Still in his underground tunnel, the
Candidate
finally reaches his destination. The Loughton Ram stands at
this junction - a
symbol for the integration of opposites, the urge for unity that fuels
this triple
race. But before the Candidate and Hacks meet, the screen goes
white. The
Candidate's dream of transcending his biology to dwell in the space of
pure
symmetry is shattered. In the final
sequence at the pier the Hacks are parked
on discrete ramps sloping down from the building's
exterior. In the closing image
the camera peers through an open crotch at the top of the frame
toward the
end of the pier. A tightly retracted scrotum is pierced
with clasps connected to
vinyl cords, which trail off to the awaiting Ascending and
Descending Hacks, who
will drive toward the island to pick up the slack. Full
descension is guaranteed.
FIVE
When total
descension is finally attained in CREMASTER 5(1997), it is envis-
ioned as a tragic love story set
in the romantic dreamscape of late-19th-Century
Budapest. The film is cast in the shape
of a lyric opera. Biological metaphors shift-
ed form to inhabit 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. Cremaster 5
opens with an overture that introduces the opera's
characters and lays out the map of Budapest that the narrative will
traverse.
The Magician crosses the Lánchíd Bridge on
horseback. The Queen ascends
the staircase of the Hungarian State Opera House with her two
ushers. She settles
onto her throne in the royal booth, and the ushers arrange a
fleet of Jacobin pigeons
around her. Pearls float on the surface of the pools in the
Gellért Thermal Baths,
partially concealing the Füdór sprites, who inhabit
their underwater realms. The
curtain rises to an empty theater, the conductor readies his orchestra,
and the opera
begins. As the Queen
sings, her Diva appears on the stage, delineating the proscenium
arch of the stage by laying ribbons across its floor and then
scaling its contours.
The Queen's mind wanders to memories of her beloved Magician
preparing for a leap
into the waters of the Danube from the Lánchíd
Bridge. Stripped naked, he positions
plastic shackles over his wrists and ankles, then fits molded
gloves on his hands and
places weighted balls between his toes. His actions recall
the famed bridge jumps of
Houdini, who was born in Budapest in 1874. The Magician is
seeking transcendence,
but the Queen misunderstands his actions and thinks he is
trying to take
his own life.
The Queen's ushers direct her attention to orifices in her throne
through which
she can see into the Gellért Baths below. Her birds
plummet through the passages in
the throne, trailing long satin ribbons into the bath. Her Giant
enters the watery path
between the two pools, wading thru the pearls to hip level. The
sprites cluster around
him with a garland of ribbons they have woven together out of
those attached to the
birds. They reach up through the water and affix the
garland to the Giant's scrotum.
In the warm waters of thermal baths, the cremaster muscle
releases and the testicles
descend. This climactic moment - the emergence of a fully
differentiated state -
is rendered visible when the pigeons soar upward with ribbons
trailing. The
Queen then relives the Magician's leap into the river and swoons from
the horror
of her recollection. At this point the narrative mirrors
the path of descension
just revealed: having completed his climb, the Diva tumbles to the
stage, and the
Magician plunges to the bottom of the river, landing, manacled,
on a flowerbed.
Two water sprites caress his fallen body and insert a black pearl
into his mouth.
The Queen performs her mournful aria, preparing to join her lover in
death. A thin
stream of liquid emanates from her mouth, trickling onto her
ruffle and throne, then
falling into the pools below. On its descent, the stream divides
into two droplets that
strike the water simultaneously. Two perfect circles resonate
outward, filling the
surface of the bath with their waves, suggesting, in turn, eternal
renewal or the
echoes of a system expiring. The Cremaster cycle
defers any definitive conclusion.
