CREMASTER 2: The Ectoplasm, 1999

About the Work

What is spoken by the medium becomes visible as electroplasma – a substance that issues from the mouth as foam. In Matthew Barney’s work, it appears as a cipher of summoning on the lips of the woman dressed in black. The tentacles of figural furniture are reaching for the couple deep in a trance. A mixed-media work in five parts, ‘CREMASTER’ takes us to the dark side of American popular culture, where the protagonists act on a Neo-Baroque set enriched with symbolist meaning. Their eccentric body language is derived from Surrealist paintings.