From September 28 to December 15, Beijing and more specifically the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in 798 Art District, will receive for the first time in China a solo exhibit by renowned American contemporary artist Matthew Barney."Redoubt" includes a two-hour mostly wordless movie, four monumental sculptures and more than 40 engravings and electroplated copper plates.
Philip Tinari, UCCA director and CEO, told CGTN that
“Matthew Barney is one of the most important artists to have emerged in the late twentieth century, and his work and thought were extremely important to a generation of Chinese artists beginning to engage with the global art world in the years after 2000.”
“Strangely, he has never had a solo exhibition in China. Working with him had always been a dream for UCCA,” said Tinari.
Preparations for the exhibition started in 2016 when Barney visited Beijing for a series of talks and screenings at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
“This particular body of work was completed in 2019 and debuted earlier this year at Barney’s alma mater, Yale University. UCCA is proud to be one of three institutions to show this project,” said Tinari, adding that after Beijing the exhibition will travel to Hayward Gallery in London.
Intriguing and contemporary
According to the UCCA director, unlike some of Barney’s earlier projects, "Redoubt" focuses on themes like the American landscape, environmental preservation, intangible cultural heritage, animal conservation, modern dance and ancient mythology.
For this reason, and even though his work is multidisciplinary and powerful, UCCA doesn’t believe it to be “controversial or shocking.” Instead, it sees it as “intriguing” and “artistically innovative and relevant to a wide range of contemporary questions and issues.”
The movie is divided into six hunts that unfold over seven days and nights in Idaho. It follows Diana, played by Anette Wachter, goddess of the hunt and both protector of the natural world and the predator in it. Diana and her two attendants are in pursuit of an elusive wolf in the mountains when The Engraver, played by Matthew Barney himself, finds the hunting party and begins stalking the trio, furtively documenting their actions in a series of copper engravings.
Almost without dialogue, the movie incorporates dance as a form of communication between characters. The dance elements were filmed on location, and according to the UCCA, "The relationship between site and movement is a recurring theme."
Animal rights supporters will also be happy to know that the hunting scenes were staged with special effects. Trained animals on set had professional handlers to monitor their safety, and the wild animals were filmed in their natural habitats.
Nature and copper as one
The sculptures on display derive from trees cut from a burned forest in the Sawtooth Mountains of northern Idaho, near the artist’s childhood home. Molten copper and brass were poured through the trees, creating a unique cast of the core as the metal flowed inside.
The exhibition also includes engravings on a copper plate that Barney made during the filming of “Redoubt” and a series of electroplated copper reliefs featuring imagery from the film, like the Sawtooth Mountains landscape.
The electroplates were made using a technique that Barney developed during the production of the film. First the image is engraved into a copper plate coated with asphalt and then the plate is immersed in an acid and copper solution. Next, it is subjected to an electrical current, causing copper growths to form out of the engraved lines.
Born in San Francisco, U.S. in 1967, Matthew Barney is considered a controversial artist. According to the UCCA, he “is among the most ambitious and provocative artists of our time.” Barney was awarded numerous prizes, including the Aperto prize at the 1993 Venice Biennale and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1996.
His most epic project the “Cremaster Cycle” consists of five feature-length films produced out of order between 1994 and 2002. In total, there are nine hours of film exploring the process of creation, according to The Guggenheim Museum in New York. The cycle included photographs, drawings, sculptures and installations made in conjunction with each episode radiating from inside the movie to real life.
