Matthew Barney Retells Norman Mailer Novel in Six Hour Multimedia Epic

Lucy Tiven

Now showing at MOCA, “Matthew Barney: “RIVER OF FUNDAMENT” is a conceptual multimedia work composed of film, drawing, sculpture and storyboard.

“RIVER OF FUNDAMENT” is a tale of civilization as created, destroyed and regenerated, reflecting on forces of desire, power, sexuality and violence permeating and shaping human history.

A retelling of Norman Mailer’s 1983 novel “Ancient Evenings,” Barney’s five-part film sequence, “The Cremaster Cycle,” abandons convention and chronology to lead us through the author’s epic tale of rebirth in Ancient Egypt. Composer Jonathan Bepler provides the film’s score while the exhibition also includes massive 25-ton sculptural works including the debut of the artist’s “Water Castings” series.

The artist’s first major solo show in Los Angeles is as provocative as it is ambitious, Barney’s film interpreting Mailer in a sprawling, operatic five-and-a-half-hour rendering of the novel. The work also serves to memorialize Mailer, a friend of the artist, even starring in one of Barney’s 2007 “Cremaster” pictures.

Matthew Barney was born in San Francisco in 1967 and graduated from Yale in 1991. His controversial “Cremaster” films portray the artist in a variety of roles, playing characters from Harry Houdini to infamous murderer Gary Gilmore.

Repurposing history interspersed with mythological and autobiographical narratives and figures, Barney’s works take the viewer through dissonant scenery from The Guggenheim Museum to dreamlike visions of the Saratoga racetrack. Barney was awarded the Europa 2000 Prize at the 1996 Venice Biennale and was the inaugural recipient of the Guggenheim Museum’s Hugo Boss Award.

“Matthew Barney: RIVER OF FUNDAMENT“ is on view at MOCA Sept. 13. 2015 until Jan. 18, 2016.