The Cremaster Cycle

The Cremaster Cycle

Individual Programs: $10
The Cremaster Cycle Pass: $24
Monday’s $5 special is not valid for this special engagement

Purchase advance tickets online

Sep 3 - 9, 2010

The acclaimed five-part CREMASTER CYCLE and the Chicago premiere of DE LAMA LÂMINA!

The acclaimed five-part CREMASTER CYCLE is an evocation of the creative process by sculptor and performance artist Matthew Barney. Although the five films were not created in chronological order, and each one comprises a completely realized work in itself, together and in numerical order they follow a geographical path from West to East and trace a metaphorical path toward fully developed form. Also included is Matthew Barney’s latest film, DE LAMA LÂMINA

Films include:


Program A: CREMASTER 1 & 2 still

Program A: CREMASTER 1 & 2 (1999) Fri 3 Sep, 5:20pm
Sat 4 Sep, 1:30pm
Sun 5 Sep, 5:00pm
Mon 6 Sep, 9:00pm
Tue 7 Sep, 5:00pm
Thu 9 Sep, 8:00pm

Directed by Matthew Barney, 120m

In CREMASTER 1 (1996), a platinum starlet with twin hovering Goodyear blimps builds geometric patterns from red and green grapes, mirrored by Busby Berkeley-style showgirls on the blue Astroturf field below. CREMASTER 2 (1999), a hallucinatory work featuring Barney as Western outlaw Gary Gilmore and Norman Mailer as Harry Houdini, is an eclectic mix of gender-bending sexuality and athleticism, obscure historical references, high fashion, remote locations, lush music and a range of category-defying mythopoetic imagery.

Program B: CREMASTER 3

Program B: CREMASTER 3 (2002) Fri 3 Sep, 8:00pm
Sat 4 Sep, 4:20pm
Sun 5 Sep, 8:00pm
Mon 6 Sep, 1:30pm
Tue 7 Sep, 7:40pm
Wed 8 Sep, 4:30pm

Directed by Matthew Barney, 181m

An epic journey that infuses Celtic mysticism with 20th Century modernism, blockbuster bombast with hermetic aesthetics. Shot at two architectural landmarks – New York’s Chrysler Building and the Guggenheim Museum – along with locales in Ireland, Scotland and upstate NY, CREMASTER 3 follows The Entered Apprentice (Barney) as he endures torture and travails in order to ascend each building. Peopled by ogres and gangsters, chorus girls and freemasons, Barney’s bizarre universe is never less than stunning. Features appearances by sculptor Richard Serra, hardcore bands Agnostic Front and Murphy’s Law, and athlete Aimee Mullins.

Program C: CREMASTER 4 & 5, DE LAMA LÂMINA still

Program C: CREMASTER 4 & 5, DE LAMA LÂMINA (1997) Sat 4 Sep, 8:30pm
Sun 5 Sep, 1:30pm
Mon 6 Sep, 5:30pm
Wed 8 Sep, 8:00pm
Thu 9 Sep, 5:00pm

Directed by Matthew Barney, 153m

In CREMASTER 4, a flame-haired satyr (Matthew Barney) slowly taps his way through an eroding floor into the sea as competing color-coded motorcycle teams set off in opposite directions to circle the Isle of Man. In CREMASTER 5, Ursula Andress stars as the Queen of Chain, an audience of one for whom a lush operatic spectacle is performed by the Budapest Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra within a grand 19th Century opera house, accompanied by fairies, a magician (Barney), various attendants of unspecified gender and species, and a bevy of pigeons. DE LAMA LÂMINA (From Mud, A Blade) was filmed during Carnivale 2004 in Salvador De Bahia, Brazil. A collaboration between Barney and avant-garde musician Arto Lindsay, the film is a vivid illustration of Barney’s fascination with “biomechanical erotica.” Chicago premiere!