New York magazine interviews artist Matthew Barney about his creative influences on the eve of the premiere of his latest film collaboration, with a soundtrack by his girlfriend Björk, "Drawing Restraint 9." Early on, Barney encountered Eva Hesse, "The Evil Dead," The Ramones, and The Butthole Surfers.

How about pop musicwhat did you listen to before you met Björk?

Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics. Some of the first shows I saw when I moved to New York were the Butthole Surfers. They were using found medical films, projecting them behind the bandthings that were really difficult to watch, like a vasectomy. The way they mixed media I found really compelling.

In The Order, from Cremaster 3, you turn the Guggenheim into a kind of video gameare you a gamer?

I played the first wave of arcade games as a teenagerGalaxian, Pac-Man. Donkey Kong is one of those levels games I certainly thought about. Recently, I played a game that excited meGrand Theft Auto. I was editing in San Francisco and driving across the Golden Gate Bridge every day. Id spent a late night trying to land a helicopter on the top of the bridge, and the geometry in the game is pretty precise. Driving across the bridge the following day felt like a completely different experience. I felt that I had a completely new understanding of its structure.

jonasgrumby

Alexandria, VA

April 2004

MAR 27, 2006 02:05 PM

I really wish he'd get around to releasing the entire Cremaster series on DVD already. Grainy copies will do in the meantime, but come on...

CheshireCat

Los Angeles, CA

January 2004

MAR 27, 2006 03:04 PM

..I think that berneys films re overintellectualized ......and not really that good. cremaster 3 was the only good one .....and the only one you will not fall asleep to ....his succeess seems due to the lack of talented artists out there today. sure his films have meaning but that still does not make them good...except in a visual way. Like all minimalists his work speaks for itself

alpha_hazard

Fort Collins, CO

April 2004

MAR 27, 2006 03:34 PM

jonasgrumby said:
I really wish he'd get around to releasing the entire Cremaster series on DVD already. Grainy copies will do in the meantime, but come on...

Don't think it'll happen. Art and wide distribution are seldom bedfellows. "The Order" is about all you can get.

You're going to have to just troll the newspapers for showing in your area.

adjunct

Philadelphia, PA

July 2002

MAR 27, 2006 04:06 PM

CheshireCat said:
..I think that berneys films re overintellectualized ......and not really that good. cremaster 3 was the only good one .....and the only one you will not fall asleep to ....his succeess seems due to the lack of talented artists out there today. sure his films have meaning but that still does not make them good...except in a visual way. Like all minimalists his work speaks for itself

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but in what way is Barney a minimalist? I'd say that using the Empire State Building and the Guggenheim as sets for your three-hour film is as maximalist as you can get.