Description

Hard-ground etching on copper plate, printed with graphite ink onto Japanese paper, in a bespoke frame designed by. Matthew Barney. Paper dimensions: 34 x 41 cm [13.4 x 16.1 inches]. Image dimensions: 16.5 x 24 cm [6.5 x 9.45 inches]. Edition of 20 prints, signed and numbered recto. Produced by Matthew Barney and Two Palms Press. This work has been generously donated to the Whitechapel Gallery by the artist and Two Palms Press. Matthew Barney's edition for the Whitechapel Gallery relates to his recent film River of Fundament (2014). The film transports the myth-laden narrative of Norman Mailer's novel Ancient Evenings (1983) – itself based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead – into a contemporary American setting. The project encompasses numerous related artworks including, drawings, sculpture and performance. In the film, the recurring motif of a graduated ascent to power is articulated in the material language of the metals and minerals that take form in sculpture. Base elements — zinc, sulfur, iron, copper — give way to yellow metal alloys — bronze and brass — that emulate, but fail to reproduce, the quality of gold. Barney's edition is printed with graphite ink, a base element that appears throughout the film and it's related artworks. Hidden within the intricate lines of this exquisite print are the outlines of the American Bison, the last of the three animal protagonists in River of Fundament. The work's title, Investment, describes the stage in the sculptural casting process where the pattern is submerged into the mold material, before being displaced by the casting medium. This print, like Barney's sculptures from the film, translates motifs from River of Fundament into autonomous works of art, bearing witness to these set-piece performances while recasting their themes of decay, regeneration and alchemical metamorphosis.