Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Matthew Barney: Ancient Evenings: Libretto at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in Brussels

Matthew Barney’s ‘Ancient Evenings: Libretto’ (installation view) via Gladstone Gallery

Barbara Gladstone Gallery is currently featuring the art of Matthew Barney. The exhibit, titled ‘Ancient Evenings: Libretto,’ involves a series of drawings from a seven act opera that Barney is developing with composer Jonathan Bepler. The Barney & Bepler collaboration focuses on Norman Mailer’s novel Ancient Evenings-- a novel set in ancient Egypt that chronicles the journey of the dead. Thus, the opera explores the seven stages the soul passes through after bodily death according to Egyptian mythology.

Barney adds a twist by focusing on a 1967 Chrysler Imperial rather than the human body-- Egypt has been replaced by a contemporary industrial setting. The exhibit will come to a close on May 9th, 2009. For more information visit, www.gladstonegallery.com

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