Mathew Barney is an Idaho artist. Barney has a lot of influences for his works, such with themes of the desert, such as coyotes and sand, to parts of the human body and extensions of the body. A lot of his influences came from living in Idaho with his father, playing on the football team, and visiting his mother in New York, visiting all of the museums and art galleries. His works show us how these parts of his life have influenced his work and performances.
Barney’s works are based from fantasy and dreams. His works use special effects such as making live animals dead, aesthetics, masks, and using folk lore in his works. His collection of works, Cremaster 1-4, is some of his most famous works. The cremaster is a muscle that is part of the male reproductive system and in these works the cremaster is a stand in for conflict in these sets of works. His works contain conflict between two ideas, peoples, or how violence is supplemented into form.
Barney sees the world through physical movements and bodies, rather than from models. His works are an extension of the body, such as with his work Drawing Restraint, where he had a pencil tied to pole, and puts himself in awkward positions to draw. He moves around, adjusts the paper into different areas, but he tries to restrict himself from being able to draw like he would usually be able to. He does this to try and get what it would be like to see and do his art from a different view. He restrains himself so his work will become an extension of himself. That is what a lot of his work is about, trying new things and seeing if he can make his ideas come to life.
 |
| Cremaster Work |
 |
| Cremaster Work |
 |
| Cremaster Work |
 |
| Drawing Restraint |
No comments:
Post a Comment