Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle (1994-2002)
The Cremaster Cycle: Thoughts on Contemporary Masculinity I recently researched and watched clips of the Cremaster Cycle. If you are still getting familiar with this installation art/film/transcendental experience, it was created by visionary visual artist Matthew Blarney. It is a visual experience that spans five films, four of which are an hour long, and the final installment, Cremaster Cycle 3, is a three-hour film. The film is named after the Cremaster muscle that raises and lowers the testes to help regulate heat and protect sperm production. The film isn’t in chronological order but can be viewed as a stand-alone. The movie’s order starts at four, one, five, two, and three. It is an exciting film that explores different stages of the male’s sexual maturity from conception to gestation and growing from a child to sexual maturity. It is a film that explores themes of masculinity, and Blarney (2001) strives to show through the characters that h...