"This F'n Vaseline Thing"

For those of you who are still reeling from Matt Barney’s Drawing Restraint 9, I have just the thing for you: tonight at the Walker Art Center they’re showing the documentary Matthew Barney: No Restraint at 8:00–and it’s free (provided you get there on time–tix available at 7).

Quite frankly, this documentary is, in my mind, more entertaining than the film itself. Barney talks with his ‘aw-shucks’ Idahoan accent, and there are weird public access television shots of Barney the high school football player–who woulda thunk? Also, there’s some great commentary by the very earnest captains of the whaling company and their baffled crew. The director, Alison Chernick, made a similar feature on Jeff Koons, who I personally consider the worst artist ever walk the face of the earth, so you also get heaping platters of pretension from gallery owners in NYC (though no critics). Nonetheless, the film is a winning companion to the wacky film. My only complaint is that they weren’t showing it before I sat through DR9.

The titular quote, by the way, is from Barney himself.