Cremaster 2

Director: Matthew Barney

1999 / 80min / 35mm

The narrative of Cremaster 2—the second in the series and second-to-last to be released—moves from 1977, the year of Gary Gilmore’s execution, back to 1893, the year that Harry Houdini performed at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The stories of the trial of Gilmore (played by Barney) and his possible grandfather, Houdini (played by Gilmore’s one-time biographer, Norman Mailer), unfold alongside a third narrative strand concerning the lives of bees, together suggesting provocative questions about self-transformation, fate, and regression.

Part of Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle & Early Works