Barney
is an American artist who works with sculpture, photography,
performance and video all of which are combined particularly in his
work The Cremaster Cycle (1994-2002). The Cremaster Cycle encourages
the audience to consume its imagery which has a strong symbolic
system, however gives the feel that meaning is not necessary to us,
when finding pleasure in his work. The striking imagery of the
hybrids, movements, sculptural happenings, all within the
interactive-ness of the film (DVD) makes its effective and feel new
in exploring different mediums within an overall performance. Each
cremaster cycle has its own striking characters that all are attached
to the core of the performance or even narrative (if the audience
chooses to interpret it like this), all contributing to the certain
style and ‘feel’ transmitted towards the viewer. His work has a
strong individual style, which is something I want to adopt to my
work, to make it more personal, although appealing. The cycle has
evolved over 8 years and has joined this biological model with other
subjects that connect to history, autobiography and mythology.
The images/characters that strikes me the most are ones that have been made half human half animal, or have some element of non human to them. I think audience takes more interest and curiosity into these images, as it is something of the unfamiliar (and sometimes of the uncanny).
How
this relates to my work
It is interesting to see how several mediums (sculpture, performance, film) can be combined to create strong visual work, full of meaning. I want my work to stand out visually, and draw people in whilst still being vague about its meaning. Of course my work will still be based of off inspirations of bioart whilst connecting to other subjects related to hybridisation, animals and humanity. Whilst
Barneys work stretches out to mythology, I want my work to connect
shamanism, as well as historical relationships humans have had with
animals and other living organisms, particularly with religion. This
includes Ancient Egypt, and the gods that were half human form half
animal, but also these animal hybrids in a array of Greek and Roman
mythology.
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