THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BARNEY
by Ben Davis



Existentialist guru Søren Kierkegaard once quipped that, had Hegel concluded his System of Logic by stating that it was all a joke, he would truly have been the greatest philosopher. "As it is," he went on, "he is merely a buffoon." Similar sentiments might apply to Matthew Barney, particularly with regard to his recently debuted feature-length film, Drawing Restraint 9, and the accompanying show at Gladstone Gallery, Apr. 7-May 13, 2006.

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