Matthew barney 2020 series#

When viewed from Manhattan or Roosevelt Island and imbued with the meaning of the clock it functions like a memorial candle, once again placing Long Island City at the center of the universe, both artistically and politically.Ĭandela – the candle lights at 6pm and becomes visible slightly before sundown The latter is a video loop of a long burning candle projected against an old brick smokestack located about a hundred yards off the river in back of the clock. 3įurthermore, now that the meaning has been revealed, the juxtaposition of the clock with another completely unrelated video projection art project by Andrew Ratcliff called Candela, adds a whole new layer for those gazing at it head on. Next we divided the numerator by the denominator, multiplied it by the day of the month and subtracted Lucky 7 from it to arrive at Janu– the day of the next presidential inauguration! Therefore we must conclude that Matthew Barney has a large Trump Countdown Clock on the East River in Long Island City 2 that is easily viewable by many in midtown Manhattan. 1 Spoiler alertįirst, as any avid long-time reader of LICtalk would already know, the building to which the clock is attached is the studio of art provocateur Matthew Barney. But with a little sleuthing we were able to solve the mystery. At first glance, the meaning of the numbers would leave one bewildered. Look up from the river, is it a ferry-passenger ticker? Is it a Powerball Jackpot ad? At the very northern end of Gantry Park there is a large red digital display. The Gallery is honored to present Redoubt to the public, and we eagerly anticipate the interdisciplinary fruits of this exhibition and publication.What time is it? It’s memorial time How’s that for a wall! “To have a contemporary artist and Yale alumnus of Barney’s extraordinary talent mine the University’s collections and intellectual resources, including staff and faculty, for such a captivating and compelling project speaks to the power of art to transcend disciplines and boundaries. “Projects like Redoubt are truly thrilling from the Gallery’s perspective,” states Stephanie Wiles, the museum’s Henry J. On the plates that were left longest in the electroplating bath, the copper accretions overtake the drawing, transforming the engravings into abstract reliefs and almost completely obscuring the image. By altering the conditions in the electroplating tank-including current, heat, and chemical concentrations-the artist produced unique variations on each image. The plate was immersed in an acid and copper solution and was subjected to an electrical current, causing copper growths to form out of the engraved lines. In this experimental method, an image was engraved into a copper plate coated with asphalt. The electroplates were made using a technique that Barney developed during production of the film, which he then refined and expanded in the studio. “The artist is equally adventurous in his approaches to materials and art making, with both casting and electroplating methods newly invented for Redoubt. Knox, Jr., Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Gallery. “Barney’s intellectual and aesthetic frames of reference are wide-ranging: classical mythology as well as myths of the American West, modern choreography as well as contemporary Native American hoop dance, environmental science as well as wildlife biology, art history, cosmology, electrochemistry, and alchemy,” says exhibition curator Pamela Franks, Class of 1956 Director at the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and former Senior Deputy Director and Seymour H.

Matthew barney 2020 series#

The exhibition also includes engravings on copper plate that Barney made during the filming of Redoubt as well as a series of electroplated copper reliefs that feature imagery from the film, such as the landscape of the Sawtooth Mountains or a wolf among the trees. Barney poured Molten copper and brass were poured through the trees, creating a unique cast of the core as the metal flowed inside. The four monumental sculptures in the exhibition derive from trees harvested from a burned forest in the Sawtooth Mountains. This show represents the first major exhibition of Barney’s work at his alma mater, demonstrating his ever-expanding range and shift in materials over the past ten years, from the plastic and petroleum jelly of his early works to the cast metals that figured prominently in River of Fundament.

Photograph courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels. Cast and machined brass, and cast and machined copper.