In their first official collaboration, Matthew Barney—“the most compelling, richly imaginative artist to emerge in years” (New York Times)—partners with musical innovator Björk. Her music provides a textural and emotional counterpoint to Barney’s intense and innovative visuals, creating a new mythology for the 21st century. Both play Occidental Guests who make their way aboard a Japanese whaling ship, where they are bathed and dressed in traditional Japanese wedding costumes. While the Guests take part in a tea ceremony, an enormous mold on the ship’s deck is being filled with liquified petroleum jelly, creating a massive sculpture that is later dissected and left to disintegrate. A great storm soon floods the tea chamber, initiating a remarkable transformation that blurs cultures, histories, and biology. 2005, U.S., color, 35mm, Japanese, 135 minutes.
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