dbborroughs
Matthew Barney No Restraint is about Barney's filming of Drawing Restraint 9, a film that he made with his companion Bjork. Its set on a Japanese whaling vessel and, as with much of Barney's work, involves a great deal of petroleum jelly. It begins in Brooklyn where Barney is testing out a tank that will be used to make a petroleum jelly casting on the whaling ship. The film then moves to Japan and we follow the filming of the movie. There are also interviews with people who know and admire Barney's work so the film acts as a nutshell biography of Barney and his art. While watching the new piece come together we get a taste of some of his other works, and since Barney's art consists of not only creating a piece of art but filming its creation we also see the works being put together. (Warning: some of it can be disturbing).The title Drawing Restraint 9 refers to a series of works Barney has done where he limits his ability to move while making a drawing, say tethering himself to a bungee cord which keeps him from being able to stay at a paper attached near the top of a ramp. (The end credits for this film contains the film record of Drawing Restraint 10) I'm not a fan of Matthew Barney. I do like the imagery his filmed projects produce but at the same time I wonder if he's for real. I keep getting the feeling that he's a talented person who's found a way of bilking rich patrons out of a great deal of money. His work constantly makes me wonder if he's serious or not. Actually I know he's serious since few people would go as far as Barney and not reveal its all been a joke.I had hoped that this film was going to give me some clue into to the art and mind of Matthew Barney. Unfortunately other than telling me how he does what he does, and providing some very beautiful imagery it left me cold. I still think Barney is full of it on all but a purely visual level, I especially find his his deeper meanings and explanations for what he's doing bordering on ludicrous. His massive Cremaster series (which is discussed here), which runs around 9 or 10 hours concerns itself with (I'm quoting someone in No Restraint here) "The descent of the testicle and the quest for freedom". Having seen some of the films created as part of that earlier cycle I have to say that at no time did a descending anything ever cross my mind. Clearly Barney and I have completely different take on his art. Then again watching the reaction of some of his supporters there are many people who want to be baffled by images Bjork waste deep in petroleum jelly hacking her legs off.No Restraint is a tough slog. Certainly seeing how Barney brings his vision together is interesting but only to a point. We get only limited insight into what Barney is doing. He explains what he's doing, but since we see very little of Drawing Restraint 9 his explanations mean nothing. At the same time the section of the film that show Barney's past work is of limited value since the people we see discussing it all seem to be somehow connected to Barney. Granted we get glimpses of what else he's done, but the work is very limited in context. I'm sure that had I seen Drawing Restraint or had been more familiar with the earlier work (and had liked it) this would have meant something to me. Instead it was 72 minutes that felt as though it was 60 too many.Recommended if you want an introduction to Matthew Barney, but don't have to pay for it. Alternately if you're a huge Bjork fan and must see everything she's done or need to hear her talk about her work and life. Just keep the remote handy.At the same time everyone else may want to just stay away
Chris Knipp
Superstar-fashion-model-instantly-famous-Yale-artist Matthew Barney is someone you either love or hate. This new film by Alison Chernick, 'Matthew Barney: No Restraint,' makes it hard to hate the man, though. He's not only good-looking but straightforward and easygoing. But this isn't much more than a "making of" for Barney's own recent film, 'Drawing Restraint.' It doesn't ask hard or adversarial questions. And when it's over the art may in some respects remain as puzzling and dubious as ever. According to an interview with his father Matthew wanted to become a plastic surgeon, but most of all was active in sports in his home town of Boise, Idaho, where he was a star quarterback in high school. Clearly he remains an all-around athlete, and he incorporates physical elements of sports into his work. One shape he often uses, we learn, is based on a certain wrestling mat. An early piece said to have gained attention for him looks like a device used in football training. His work combines Seventies performance art with the use of odd, messy natural materials. Barney uses a giant vat of whale fat in Drawing Restraint, and that early piece was coated in Vaseline. The major European art figure of the Seventies Joseph Beuys (who famously used fat and felt) would be Barney's great predecessor in this; but Beuys isn't mentioned here, nor are teachers or influences alluded to.As in any "making of," we get a sense of how location was used. 'Drawing Restraint 9' was shot in Japan, largely aboard a whaling vessel. In his film, as we're shown, Barney incorporated Japanese customs surrounding whaling and other things, including the tea ceremony. How much the film is improvised is not specified; one might guess rather a lot. After seeing the post-shoot show one local visitor comments that Barney's use of Japanese culture seems more sensitive – or at least less cringe-inducing – than that of other foreign artists. Barney also used his girlfriend, the Icelandic singer Bjork, in his film as both actor and composer, and she is shown and interviewed. She comments that Japan was a good place for collaboration because it was "neutral ground" for both of them. Barney and Bjork, ornately costumed, are his film's stars. They're both odd, attractive, arty, famous; they're visibly in love; arguably a good match for life and future art collaborations."Drawing Restraint" is not a new title, the film shows, but rather a name Barney has been using for an ongoing series of performance art drawings made while overcoming a self-imposed physical challenge – a "restraint." He is tied or held back or climbs up a wall or jumps on a trampoline to draw lines on a wall or ceiling. The action is more important that the resulting "drawing," which in fact may just be a mass of scratches. But how the drawing series relates to the film this is a "making of" doesn't become clear.Importantly – and this is made clear – the artist has always had access to substantial funds as well as expertise for his projects, of which he is the star and the director, rather than sole craftsman as with many traditional artists. Barbara Gladstone was an early sponsor. Hugo Boss funded this documentary. We see shots of an installation of Barney's Japan show that reveal it featured beautiful photographs, evidently not made by him, but who did make them we don't learn. We do get to see and hear the Japanese ship's crew and whaling authorities commenting and sometimes participating.A popular film about the art-making process is Thomas Riedelsheimer's 2001 'Rivers and Tides,' about Andy Goldsworthy. In it we easily get a grasp of what Goldsworthy is about. He celebrates the beauty and fragility of nature in his painstaking, often temporary creations. That documentary makes you feel more intimate with the artist (and his obviously easier-to-grasp work), though the film chooses to conceal how much Goldworthy too is aided by staff and funding and how well his work is promoted by exhibitions, lavish art books, and lectures. The impression that he's a lonely fellow in the wilderness is somewhat misleading; it's not the whole picture either. But you do get a sense of what his work means.I have seen some of Barney's own films though not 'Drawing Restraint.' They are elaborate and strange and painfully slow moving; they made no sense to me. This documentary doesn't address the elaborate surreal aspects of his films. It struck me that he's built up his grotesque self-makeup out of little oddities in his otherwise handsome face, which suggests a blend of Paul Newman and Sam Shepherd, but that isn't anything the film itself commented on. Some clips of Barney's 'Cremaster' series reminded me how opaque they are.Toward the end of the film of which this is a "making of," Barney and Bjork, floating in the water, in a sequence that even in brief excerpt I found disturbing to watch, slice up their own legs (using fake prosthetic legs) as if they were whale blubber, and turn themselves into sushi. Apparently this came out of the notion that we are close to whales, and it is a chillingly literal interpretation of the idea that we are what we eat. This sequence even in brief excerpt was hard to watch. There is a shock value at times but as in work of the surrealist school, you can't read coherent narrative into Barney's films, in my experience or as shown here.One wonders whether Barney has any concerns about Japanese over-fishing, damage to the aquatic ecosystem. No answers from this film on all that.Okay: Matthew Barney is a swell guy. You'd enjoy meeting him. But what's he up to? Should we take him seriously? The artist's defenders say Barney is more than a flash in the pan, that he has complex interests, fascinating – and original – ideas. What are they? I still don't know.
