plays the part of the window-smasher, this piece

could be seen as a self-portrait. Ultimately Rist

has created for the contemporary viewer an
enigmatic fairy tale in which we feel a release
as the character’s aggressions are acted out in
unlikely ways, while the story that this piece tells
empowers her (and us) to maintain or restore a
sense of beauty in the world.
From 1994 to 2002 American artist
Matthew Barney (b. 1967) produced, created,
and starred in five full-length films called the
Cremaster cycle. “Cremaster” literally refers to
the set of muscles that control the height of
male testicles. Barney adopted the cremaster
as a metaphor because it expresses the sense
that identity changes over time: from prenatal
sexual differentiation (in Cremaster 1) to a fully
formed, or “descended,” being (in Cremaster 5).
The films do not use narrative or dialogue
in the conventional sense, but visually and
conceptually incorporate the history of the place
where the films are set, episodes of invented
mythology, Barney’s personal interests, and a
symbol system that he has developed.
In the still shown here fromCremaster 5
(3.10.16), Barney plays a fictional character known
as the Queen’s Giant, who is undergoing the final
stages of his transformation to a fully formed
man. In an interview in 2004, Barney explained
that he was not searching for coherence in the
Cremaster cycle, but that the films’ ambiguity
mimics his own wandering interests and the way
he absorbs things on a day-to-day basis. The
intricate symbolism that Barney invests in the
people, places, and things in the films recalls all
the simultaneous meanings that these elements
can have (whether we are aware of them or not),
and suggests that we can access them at the touch
of a button or the whim of an artist.
A joyous splash of vibrant color is the first
sensation upon seeing the installation and
narrative claymation work of Swedish artist
Nathalie Djurberg (b. 1978). Claymation is a
form of stop-motion animation using figures
and objects made of plasticine clay. Each frame
of the video involves slight adjustments to
the objects and figures, such that when they
are played in sequence, they appear to change
and move. The ambient and dramatic music
oranges, yellows, and greens of a luminous field
of torch lilies, also called red-hot pokers, directly
illuminate the room.
In her princess attire, the woman carries a
torch lily like a staff. As she saunters down the
street, she occasionally stops to smash out a
car window with her flower. The violence of
her vandalism does not have any effect on her
happy-go-lucky demeanor. In fact, she does not
even react when a police officer passes her on the
sidewalk. The police officer does not react to her
apparent vandalism either. They just exchange
a pleasant greeting. Because the artist herself