THE CREMASTER CYCLE is a saga of five films that serve as an extended allegory for the process of creation. Masterminded by artist Matthew Barney, THE CYCLE was produced over a series of eight years, from 1994 to 2002. Each film boasts a stunning albeit bizarre visual pallete. With vivid colors, opulent set designs and striking costumes, CREMASTER is a confetti parade of surrealist fancy. Video never looked so spectacular, nor so strange.
THE ORDER, a controversial interlude that takes place during CREMASTER 3, is the only part of the series widely availabe for sale. CREMASTER 3, set in New York City, narrates the construction of the Chrysler Building, which is in itself a character - host to inner, antagonistic forces at play for access to the process of (spiritual) transcendence. These factions find form in the struggle between Hiram Abiff or the Architect (Richard Serra), and the Entered Apprentice (Matthew Barney), who are both working on the building. They are reenacting the Masonic myth of Hiram Abiff, purported architect of Solomon's Temple, who possessed knowledge of the mysteries of the universe. The murder and resurrection of Abiff are reenacted during Masonic initiation rites as the culmination of a three-part process through which a candidate progresses from the first degree of Entered Apprenticeship to the third of Master Mason. THE ORDER comes as a choric interlude near the conclusion of the film, rehearsing the initiation rites of the Masonic fraternity through allegorical representations of the five-part CREMASTER CYCLE, all in the guise of a game staged in the Guggenheim Museum. This competition, or THE ORDER, features a fantastical incarnation of the Apprentice as its sole contestant, who must overcome obstacles on each level of the museum's spiraling rotunda. Along his journey, the Apprenctice must tangle with a kick line of scantily clad dancing girls, a cheetah woman (double amputee model/athlete Aimee Mullins), and a battle between punk bands Agnostic Front and Murphy's Law. THE ORDER is a one-of-a-kind visual experience, a mesmerizing leg of the brilliant, beautfiul CREMASTER journey.
