Ritual

In “Homage to Freemasonry or Indictment?: The Cremaster Cycle,” Lynn Brunet points out some of the complexities hidden in the heavy layers of historical and cultural references in Matthew Barney’s “Cremaster Cycle” and the sculptures involved with the project. Brunet wonders if the series of films and sculptures might be a “self-portrait depicting the multi-layered and confused associations experienced by an individual…who has undergone the extremes of initiatory processing now acknowledged in sociological contexts as ritual abuse” (111). She sees the scenes of ritual and torture (and the combination of the two) as a metaphoric expose of torture endured possibly by the artist or by initiates throughout history. Brunett points out that after consulting the artists gallery about the themes of Freemasonry, ritual, and torture, she received “an enthusiastic response that endorsed [her] interpretation of his work” (104).
A problem with Brunet’s incredibly specific claims is that they involve two very esoteric subjects – Freemasonry and “The Cremaster Cycle.” The former is a fraternity that makes heavy use of secret symbolism and the latter is a limited-release set of films that, even if they were viewed, are so loaded with surreal and metaphoric imagery that they seem indecipherable. For a reader that is only partially familiar with both, there is still an interesting discussion to be pulled from Brunet’s article concerning torture, or at least physical or mental distress and metaphor in ritual, especially initiation rituals, throughout culture. Brunet recalls a scene in “Cremaster 3” which references a Third Degree ritual in Freemasonry where “the corpse of Hiram Abiff is disinterred” (103). Brunet points out that some victims of ritual abuse endure “exposure to seeing or even handling corpses to make the children feel as if they are complicit in some terrible crime, even made to feel responsible for murder” (103). The point here is that through visual and physical cues, the victims are made to believe something that is not the case. Moreover, metaphorical forms of torture to some degree seem to be written into many initiation rituals of our culture. Just as the “pure” rituals of Freemasonry do not actually torture the initiate, though they metaphorically suggest it, participants in various kinds of baptisms or activities designed for one to prove his or her self might reenact a cleansing, catharsis, or other form of endurance that is meant to suggest something more serious than what is actually happening. Even the simple act of walking across a stage at a graduation – a motion that anyone can do at anytime – becomes imbued with the significance of a total transformation brought on by the previous few years. In this way, Barney’s work can be read as a visual lateralization of the underlying metaphors ritual itself.

Brunet, Lynn. “Homage to Freemasonry or Indictment: The Cremaster Cycle.” Project Muse. 98-112. elearning.ua.edu