Art Now_ Matthew Barney_ OTTOshaft _ Tate

25082015 Art Now Matthew Barney OTTOshaft | Tate

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Whats on Sign in

Whats on Tate Britain Exhibitions

Art Now Matthew Barney OTTOshaftTate Britain Exhibition

2 May 1995 ndash 18 June 1995

Matthew Barneyrsquos work combines sculpture performance and video In installations he has been making

over the past five years he introduces references from diverse cultural activities These range from physical

pursuits such as football climbing and wrestling to the skills of role-playing and dressing-up associated with

acting or modelling In Barneyrsquos work dynamic performances are intended to be seen as the external

equivalent of vital processes ndash such as digestion oxygenation or muscle growth ndash that take place within the

body In Barneyrsquos work diverse activities are combined in highly charged fictional narratives Taking an

extreme view on what constitutes artistic practice Barney has evolved a visual vocabulary that explores the

striving of the body against its inbuilt limitations reflexes ageing processes and memories

Ottoshaft is one of a trilogy of works called the Jim Otto Suite named after Jim Otto an American football

player of the 1970s While fully self-contained Ottoshaft is the middle section occurring at lsquohalf timersquo in the

trilogy Although Ottoshaft was already planned when the other two parts were shown in 1991 it was made

later in the summer of 1992 The Jim Otto Suite constitutes an extended narrative based on the character

and physiology of Jim Otto It began with an exhibition in Los Angeles (with Otto playing in white lsquoawayrsquo strip)

and was completed in a New York gallery (with Otto wearing the black lsquohomersquo strip in Barneyrsquos home town)

Ottoshaft consists of a variety of organic materials and plastic objects and three video films which are

broadcast continuously on ceiling-mounted monitors A sequence of puzzling sometimes frenetic actions are

recorded in the videos which are called Ottodrone Ottoshaft and Autodrone Ottoshaft was originally

exhibited under the curving exit and entry ramps of an underground car park in Kassel in Germany during

Documenta the international exhibition of contemporary art that takes place there every five years

Barney has adapted the work for display in the Art Now room at the Tate where it is shown in a single space

divided by an ascending wall Visitors follow a semi-circular route around the two sections of the work

Instead of a curving space for the work Barney has now created a curving path for visitors The floors and

walls of the room are lined with a white vinyl cloth

Ottoshaft proposes several interweaving narratives that are manifested in a set of objects characters and

identities These narratives are connected through the bizarre but apposite image of the bagpipes Present in

Ottoshaft as a prop and as a metaphor for processes within the body bagpipes constitute a leitmotif

recurring throughout the structure and imagery of the work

In the video films Barney has created richly allusive fiction which blends in a web of metaphor and

association the lsquosciencersquo of body-building the game of American football with its moves formations and field



of play and the internal functioning of the body Connections between these diverse elements are made by

an eclectic cast of characters some of whom are named and play a part in the action Others do not appear

in the videos but can be identified through certain characteristics Viewed as a totality they all constitute

different facets of Jim Otto the central character in Ottoshaft

External conflicts are conveyed in the videos by the competitiveness of the football game ndash identifiable even

when its training routines and touch-down runs appear to overlap bizarrely with a dress parade of the

Scottish Black Watch Of equal importance to these visible dramas however are the unseen bodily

processes that reflect the stressful physical demands made on the active body The absorption of nutrients

their metabolic conversion how far the body can be pushed are all vital narrative elements in Ottoshaft

Pills made of glucose sucrose Vaseline tapioca meringue (containing protein) and pound cake (made of

carbohydrate) are thrown and caught (like footballs) in the Ottodrone video Partly suggesting a game in

progress they also relate to successive stages of metabolic conversion The fully prepared athletic

physique attained after sustained intake of carbohydrates requires both protein and the pure energy

provided by glucose

Barney introduces the lsquo00rsquo numbered shirt worn by Jim Otto as a symbol which connects the external

activities of Otto (his running catching and tackling) with the bodyrsquos internal workings Double zero can be

understood to represent two orifices ndash the mouth and rectum ndash that open the body to the outside as points of

intake for food and for waste excretion These processes in the bodyrsquos internal passages are just as central

to Ottoshaft as its visible dramas

Ottoshaft is divided into two parts or lsquosuitesrsquo which together constitute a form of lsquoplaying fieldrsquo The objects

they contain are used as props by the characters in the video sequences who include very prominently the

artist himself One suite is named AI Davis after a legendary American football coach for the Oakland

Raiders the team for which whom Jim Otto played The other suite is named after the 1950s screen actress

Jayne Mansfield

According to Barney the suites represent contrasting physical conditions Otto strains towards one or the

other and together they define the parameters of the various dramas played out in Ottoshaft The Fascia

Jayne Mansfield Suite embodies a condition of hypoxia Its pendant the AI Davis Suite describes the

condition of hypertrophy Both are medical terms hypoxia is a deficiency of oxygen and hypertrophy means

the unnatural enlargement of organs All actions within Ottoshaft represent a tension and oscillation between

these conditions Both conditions hypoxia and hypertrophy result in a temporary or permanent reshaping of

the body and reflect the simultaneous processes of degeneration and regeneration that occur constantly in

body tissue The attainment of either condition would bring Ottoshaftrsquos narratives to a conclusion

These medical references are interpreted in a cultural context

Jayne Mansfield was well known for her lsquohourglassrsquo figure and prominent bust Her posture relied on an

expanded chest supported by the diaphragm and (taken to absurd lengths) on inhaling and holding her

breath lsquoFasciarsquo is a description of the means of support the muscle wall (the diaphram) separating internal

chambers of the body or perhaps an uplifting corset AI Davis the football coach after whom the second

lsquosuitersquo is named represents another extreme in his striving to create the fully honed physique Athletes



exhorted by their coaches exercise to increase muscle size or develop specific groups of muscles aided by

the consumption of nutrients

Fascia Jayne Mansfield Suite and AI Davis Suite provide contrasting points of tension for the metabolic

processes and physical performance of Otto These complex interacting stories around the active body are

conveyed through the unexpected though apt metaphor of Scottish bagpipes Bagpipe bellows are

traditionally made from an internal organ (the stomach) from which protrude a set of drones and a shanter

for playing melodies Their visible and metaphorical presence in Ottoshaft permeates the work and shapes

our understanding of it

Running from the locker room at the beginning of the Ottodrone video Otto splits into three (echoing the

number of drone pipes) as the video cuts from a figure dressed in white strip to one wearing black strip then

one In a kilt Otto is transmuted into three Scots wearing the tartan of the Black Watch who push a tackling

sledge (a piece of training apparatus) around the basement car park We could interpret the underground car

park with shafts and towers leading upwards from it (like drone pipes) as a gigantic instrument set in the

belly of the earth with these characters microscopically speeding through the organism Later in Ottodrone

BarneyOtto scales the shafts and towers of the buildings and blocks them with different organic materials

(Vaseline tapioca etc that represent progressive stages of the metabolic process

In whatever form they appear the bagpipe drones remain clamped placing the bellows or by analogy

organs within the body of Otto under pressure These are the stresses of the body-in-training or the body

during the tense seconds before the ball is punted into play Such pressures prime the body for immortality

through sublime performance or propel it towards collapse through injury and rupture (Jim Otto was famous

for ending his football career playing with prosthetic knees)

In Ottoshaft the narrative thrust is directed towards these possible ndash and possibly conflicting ndash conclusions

In fact Barney forestalls precisely this moment of release and prevents a closure of the narrative The

trapped air in the bellows never escapes the pipes never play the game never begins An attempt in

Ottodrone to kick the bellows teed up like a football is frustrated as the kilted kicker is crudely pushed aside

The excitement of exhortation and pursuit the anticipation of the opening moves find no ultimate resolution

Beyond the threshold of the hypoxia-hypertrophy sections in Ottoshaftrsquos lsquofield of playrsquo is what Barney

describes (using football terminology) as the zone of hubris In mythology hubris is when humans overreach

themselves before the gods and are punished for their insolence The narratives within Ottoshaft stall before

this threshhold is crossed the pent-up energy is not released Instead the body herniates Presented as

glass-enclosed meringue objects hanging above the entrance to the installation hernias symbolise the

strength of the body undermined its potential unfulfilled

Barney proposes a hidden facet within Ottorsquos character which further resists the state of hubris Although not

specifically named this aspect of Ottorsquos character is embodied in Harry Houdini the escape artist Because

of his creative response to external bonds and his intimate awareness of the bodyrsquos minutest possibilities for

manoeuvre Barney calls him the character of lsquopositive restraintrsquo Houdinirsquos apparent artistry was to escape

into the body ndash rather than bursting out of his strait jacket chains or famously a sealed water chamber

Barney equates this motion inwards to a return to a closed system By reshaping and withdrawing into the

body in a hermetic spiral Houdini seemingly defied death to be continually lsquorebornrsquo in a state of pure energy



Installation Performance Sculpture Video art Art NowTags

In earlier works Barney conceived this figure of lsquopositive restraintrsquo as embryonic with its energies directed

purely towards growth Within the iconography of Ottoshaft the physically mature Jim Otto desires ndash but can

only desire rather than experience ndash a physical regression to this prenatal state of pure growth

The vigorous narratives and visceral metabolic processes in Ottoshaft follow Ottorsquos attempts to redefine the

body by exerting it and aggressively opening it up Conflicting facets within Jim Otto played out by Barney

the Scotsmen AI Davis and suggested by qualities in Jayne Mansfield and Harry Houdini ndash constitute a

singular installation of peculiar dynamic elegance that is as perplexing as it is mesmerising

Biography

Matthew Barney born 1967 in San Francisco California BA Yale University New Haven Connecticut in

1989 Lives and works in New York



of play and the internal functioning of the body Connections between these diverse elements are made by

an eclectic cast of characters some of whom are named and play a part in the action Others do not appear

in the videos but can be identified through certain characteristics Viewed as a totality they all constitute

different facets of Jim Otto the central character in Ottoshaft

External conflicts are conveyed in the videos by the competitiveness of the football game ndash identifiable even

when its training routines and touch-down runs appear to overlap bizarrely with a dress parade of the

Scottish Black Watch Of equal importance to these visible dramas however are the unseen bodily

processes that reflect the stressful physical demands made on the active body The absorption of nutrients

their metabolic conversion how far the body can be pushed are all vital narrative elements in Ottoshaft

Pills made of glucose sucrose Vaseline tapioca meringue (containing protein) and pound cake (made of

carbohydrate) are thrown and caught (like footballs) in the Ottodrone video Partly suggesting a game in

progress they also relate to successive stages of metabolic conversion The fully prepared athletic

physique attained after sustained intake of carbohydrates requires both protein and the pure energy

provided by glucose

Barney introduces the lsquo00rsquo numbered shirt worn by Jim Otto as a symbol which connects the external

activities of Otto (his running catching and tackling) with the bodyrsquos internal workings Double zero can be

understood to represent two orifices ndash the mouth and rectum ndash that open the body to the outside as points of

intake for food and for waste excretion These processes in the bodyrsquos internal passages are just as central

to Ottoshaft as its visible dramas

Ottoshaft is divided into two parts or lsquosuitesrsquo which together constitute a form of lsquoplaying fieldrsquo The objects

they contain are used as props by the characters in the video sequences who include very prominently the

artist himself One suite is named AI Davis after a legendary American football coach for the Oakland

Raiders the team for which whom Jim Otto played The other suite is named after the 1950s screen actress

Jayne Mansfield

According to Barney the suites represent contrasting physical conditions Otto strains towards one or the

other and together they define the parameters of the various dramas played out in Ottoshaft The Fascia

Jayne Mansfield Suite embodies a condition of hypoxia Its pendant the AI Davis Suite describes the

condition of hypertrophy Both are medical terms hypoxia is a deficiency of oxygen and hypertrophy means

the unnatural enlargement of organs All actions within Ottoshaft represent a tension and oscillation between

these conditions Both conditions hypoxia and hypertrophy result in a temporary or permanent reshaping of

the body and reflect the simultaneous processes of degeneration and regeneration that occur constantly in

body tissue The attainment of either condition would bring Ottoshaftrsquos narratives to a conclusion

These medical references are interpreted in a cultural context

Jayne Mansfield was well known for her lsquohourglassrsquo figure and prominent bust Her posture relied on an

expanded chest supported by the diaphragm and (taken to absurd lengths) on inhaling and holding her

breath lsquoFasciarsquo is a description of the means of support the muscle wall (the diaphram) separating internal

chambers of the body or perhaps an uplifting corset AI Davis the football coach after whom the second

lsquosuitersquo is named represents another extreme in his striving to create the fully honed physique Athletes




















































Biography






















































Biography













Biography



Documents

Art Now_ Matthew Barney_ OTTOshaft _ Tate