ART CITIES:N.York-Matthew Barney

Two years after his graduation from Yale University, Matthew Barney had his first solo exhibition in New York at the old Barbara Gladstone Gallery location in Soho (19/10-19/11/91) . An instant success, Barney rocketed to international art-world stardom and has remained there ever since, 25 years later, Gladstone is revisiting that seminal show by simulating it.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gladstone Gallery archive

The exhibition “Facility of DECLINE”, mirrors the original one, but does not replicate it, Matthew Barney’s works transform complex personal and historical narratives into sculptural objects, employing an unusual range of materials pioneered by the artist: petroleum jelly, prosthetic plastic, tapioca, and cast sucrose. Showcased are sculptures, videos, and drawings, among them the two recorded performances “Blind Perineum” and “Radial Drill”. These videos set the stage for an elaborate narrative featuring Oakland Raider Jim Otto, and the escape artist Harry Houdini, a story line that incorporates the two sculptures,  “Repressia” and “Transexualis”. The climbing path featured in those pivotal early videos is recreated in the Chelsea gallery forming a guide through the sculptures, including for the first time in this configuration, “DRILL TEAM: screw BOLUS”, an expansive and intricate installation that occupies its own room. This large-scale work includes 44 cast petroleum wax and jelly dumbbells punctured with the same ice screws and carabiners Barney used to scale the gallery ceiling in “BLIND PERINEUM”. Even in these early works, you’ll find Barney’s abiding concerns, obsessions, and psychosexual fetishes, a self-conscious display and critique of masculinity, gender liminality and delineation, and a fusion between biology and artistry.

Info: Gladstone Gallery, 515 West 24th Street, New York, Duration: 9/9-22/10/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.gladstonegallery.com