Guggenheim art oozes jelly

NEW YORK -- "The Cremaster Cycle" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is New York's art happening of the year, combining highbrow and high camp with a bit of blarney.\nThe brainchild of Matthew Barney, this multimedia extravaganza fills the Guggenheim's stark, white rotunda with video screens, sculptures, drawings, photographs and flags to illustrate a fantasy world portrayed in Barney's art house "Cremaster" films.\nThe 35-year-old, Yale-educated Barney is a superstar among performance artists, and his creative concepts are provocative, amusing and erotic.\nUnique in contemporary art, Barney uses vast quantities of Vaseline, tapioca, plastics, graphite and other odd mediums to build strange and striking sculptures and props that defy easy description. They have to be experienced to be understood.\nThe centerpiece sculpture at the foot of the Guggenheim's soaring, circular ramp is a white structure protruding from a flat surface measuring 27 feet by 22 feet. This is the artist's depiction of a landing site for Goodyear blimps in one of his "Cremaster" films.\nElsewhere on the ramp, a trough curving along the floor contains globs of flowing Vaseline. In one of the "Cremaster" films, Barney must complete a series of athletic challenges inside the Guggenheim before the Vaseline reaches the bottom of the ramp. Portraits, drawings, display cases with decorative objects and other sculptures are arrayed along the sloping walkway.\n"'The Cremaster Cycle' -- with its universe of unique characters, locations and sculptural forms -- is truly of the 21st century," said Thomas Krens, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.\nSponsors hope that the show, which opened Friday, will be a big drawing card for the financially troubled museum during its run through June 11. Earlier versions met with success in Cologne, Germany, and Paris.\nBarney's world is built on his controversial premise about sexuality, and its impact on artistic creativity. The underlying concept is the role of the male cremaster muscle, which controls the movement of the testes in response to external stimulation. Metaphors in his story lines range from mythology to biography to geology.\nAs visitors stroll the rotunda ramp, excerpts of "Cremaster" films are shown on video screens along the gallery walls and on a screen hanging from the dome. The effect can be dizzying on the sloping walkway.\nThe "Cremaster" films -- a combined seven hours in length -- were released over eight years starting in 1994 and have drawn critical acclaim for their vivid photography, breathtaking images and Hollywood musical touches. All five films are shown in their entirety in the museum's theater.\nAuthor Norman Mailer, sculptor Richard Serra and actress Ursula Andress have prominent roles in separate films. Spectacular natural scenery, the Chrysler Building, and eclectic references to such subjects as Irish myths, Masonic rites, Harry Houdini and Goodyear blimps are hallmarks of the films.\nBarney stars in his movies, appearing in various guises and outrageous getups as he scales the parapets of the Guggenheim, bungee jumps from a Danube River bridge and dives into the cold waters of the Atlantic.\nA former high school quarterback and magazine model, Barney performs his precarious climbing sequences in the Guggenheim in one film decked out in a kilt. In one erotic sequence, Barney crawls under the upraised legs of topless showgirls. The idea in this fantasy movie is to show Barney going through a series of tasks to become an artist.\nVisitors to the Barney exhibit are likely to find his ideas challenging, so the museum is offering a 528-page catalog to help explain what's going on. It sells for $45 softcover and $65 hardcover. Individual tickets range from $10 to $15. Children under 12 are admitted for free.