Matthew Barney
Matthew Barney, born 1967 in San Francisco, lives and works in New York. Considered a global star in contemporary media art, he has achieved great success with his art since the late 1980s. Even in his early work, sculptural installations, performances and videos merged to create idiosyncratic, disturbing art that often addresses physicality and sexuality. Once an active athlete himself, sport has been a leitmotif for Matthew Barney. His earliest works, created while he was still at Yale University, were even performed in the university‘s gym.
Untitled
2007
From Re-Object/Mythos
Photogravure and embossing on Hahnemühle rag paper, 81 x 61 cm (32 x 24 in), edition of 45, signed and numbered.
In this enigmatic black-and-white edition, Matthew Barney brings his mythopoetic visual language to the industrial setting of a ship’s deck, transforming it into a stage for ritual and transformation. At the center of the composition lies a sculptural mass, ambiguous in form – part relic, part prosthetic – framed by the stark geometry of machinery and the churning sea beyond. This work continues Barney’s exploration of physicality, endurance, and the symbolic potential of materials and environments. The mechanical and the mythical are held in tension, suggesting a narrative that remains elusive yet charged with archetypal weight. As with much of Barney’s practice, the work invites interpretation without yielding to it, existing in a space between documentation, fiction, and performance.
This edition was created as part of the group portfolio Re-Object/Mythos on the occasion of an eponymous exhibition at Kunsthaus Bregenz.
