Matthew Barney
Matthew Barney - the sculptor, the filmmaker, the conceptual artist - is as much of an enigma as he is visionary. Barney is notorious for his dislike of talking about his work. So it goes without saying that interviews are not his favorite thing, either. I have pieced together a random sampling of excerpts from articles and videos, and I must say, he articulates himself quite well.
Brandon Stosuy interviewed Barney for the Dec/Jan 2007 issue of the Believer:
THE BELIEVER: A friend pointed out to me that, in a way, you make action films about bodily processes. There’s no—or very little—dialogue, but there is a lot going on. Do you view your work as entertaining? How do you think the audience is reacting?
MATTHEW BARNEY: I tend to think of it in organic terms; I tend to think of it as a body. I think a lot of the decisions that are made in regards to duration and balance are about trying to describe an organism that has its own pulse and that has its own behavior. It’s something that keeps me coming back to the filmmaking process. I think working at that scale and working with a combination of media and working with a team of people makes it possible for the form of the project to drive itself at a certain point. Once everybody has put enough into it, the thing starts to have its own needs, its own desire, and its own behavior—and I find that really exciting. I think that can happen in the studio with object-making, but I think it’s often more difficult to get to that point. Ideally, that’s my relationship to the film: It’s not so much about approaching it from the outside and thinking about how it operates, it’s more about being inside the thing and trying to keep up with its demands. Not just in terms of production, but also in terms of the feeling that the film has. It’s difficult to describe.
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Randy Kennedy interviewed both Barney and Bjork for a 2006 New York Times article:
“…In person, they are sometimes strikingly different. Mr. Barney, 38, is friendly but detached and analytical, exuding a conceptual coolness that is reflected in his films. On a recent Monday, dressed in black pants, black thermal shirt and an Indian Larry motorcycle cap, he seemed most comfortable with a sheaf of diagrams, describing the beehive of activity inside a Brooklyn warehouse. There, he and a dozen assistants were at work with sanders and soldering guns on two huge thermoplastic sculptures, related to the movie, that went on view Friday at the Gladstone Gallery in Chelsea. (A major “Drawing Restraint” exhibition opens on June 23 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.)…”
Video and interview - Document filmed during the preparation of the exhibition “The Cremaster Cycle” at the Astrup Fearney Museum of Modern Art, Oslo:
Art:21 (PBS) episode on Matthew Barney - excerpt:
