Drawing Restraint 9
Drawing Restraint 9 is a 2005 multimedia artwork by American visual artist Matthew Barney, comprising a feature-length experimental film, large-scale sculptures, photogravure prints, drawings, and a soundtrack composed by Björk.[1][2] The project's core is a 165-minute film set aboard the Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru in Nagasaki Bay, where Barney and Björk portray "Occidental Guests" participating in ritualistic ceremonies that blend Shinto-inspired practices, tea rituals, and transformative processes involving whaling activities and the molding of petroleum jelly into emblematic forms.[3][1] Originating from an invitation by the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, it forms part of Barney's long-running Drawing Restraint series, initiated during his studies at Yale, which examines how creative form emerges through physical and conceptual resistance.[1][2] The work eschews traditional narrative structure in favor of visceral, non-verbal exploration of biological metamorphosis, mythological symbolism, and cultural convergence between East and West, realized through minimal dialogue, elaborate costumes, and crew-performed sculptures.[3][2]Background and Series Context
Overview of the Drawing Restraint Series
The Drawing Restraint series is a long-term multimedia project by American artist Matthew Barney, begun in 1987 as undergraduate experiments at Yale University and continuing through at least 2021. It comprises over 25 numbered installments, incorporating drawings, sculptures, photographs, videos, performances, and installations that probe the dynamics of physical and conceptual resistance in artistic production. Barney's approach treats drawing as an embodied process, where self-imposed obstacles—such as harnesses, vaseline coatings, or environmental constraints—generate form through struggle, drawing on athletic principles like muscle hypertrophy to parallel creative exertion.[2][4][5] Early works from Drawing Restraint 1 to 6 (1987–1989) consist of simple studio-based actions, in which Barney, often clad in athletic gear and restrained by climbing harnesses or elastic bands, attempted to mark inaccessible surfaces like ceilings or walls, yielding incidental drawings and photographic documentation. These foundational pieces established the series' core motif of limitation as a catalyst for innovation, evolving from isolated bodily exertions to increasingly narrative-driven scenarios. By the mid-1990s, the series incorporated sculptural elements and video, as seen in Drawing Restraint 7 (1993), a three-channel projection depicting satyrs in a mythological chase aboard a luxury liner, blending physical performance with allegorical storytelling.[6][5][7] Later installments expanded into large-scale, site-specific productions, including films and immersive environments that integrate organic materials like petroleum jelly and ambergris, often evoking transformation and entropy. For instance, Drawing Restraint 17 (2010) is a two-channel video filmed in Switzerland, emphasizing high-production allegories, while Drawing Restraint 25 (2021) presents a 28-minute silent duet performance in Barney's studio, reflecting on aging and bodily dynamics. Exhibitions such as those at SFMOMA (2005, covering 12 installments) and the Art Gallery of Ontario (2014) have showcased the series' progression, highlighting its role as an "interval" for testing expanded drawing practices amid evolving personal and formal constraints. Barney has characterized the work as an ongoing cycle between desire and restraint, underscoring its perpetual evolution without fixed resolution.[6][8][9]Conceptual Origins and Influences
The Drawing Restraint series originated in Matthew Barney's exploration of physical and self-imposed limitations as catalysts for artistic creation, drawing directly from his background as a competitive athlete during his youth. Barney, who played football and was a high jumper, conceived the initial works in the late 1980s while at Yale University, using the metaphor of the athlete's body under restraint to parallel the artist's struggle against material and psychological constraints in producing form.[10][11] In these early pieces, such as Drawing Restraint 1 (1987), Barney suspended himself in harnesses or encased his body in materials like Vaseline to generate drawings through muscular tension, positing that creative form emerges precisely through resistance rather than unhindered freedom.[12] The conceptual framework evolved across the series to encompass broader investigations of transformation and ritual, culminating in Drawing Restraint 9 (2005) as a multimedia project commissioned by the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan. This iteration shifted from personal bodily restraint to cultural and environmental ones, incorporating the dynamics of the whaling vessel Nisshin Maru as a site where human intervention reshapes organic matter, mirroring Barney's ongoing theme that form develops through oppositional forces.[1][12] Barney has described the work's genesis in adapting the series' core idea of restraint to the Japanese context, where the ship's industrial processes evoked parallels to artistic sublimation of raw materials into refined structures.[13] Influences for Drawing Restraint 9 prominently include Shinto religious practices and ancient Japanese whaling traditions, which Barney encountered during on-site research in Japan. Shinto concepts of purification through ritual immersion and the cyclical renewal of form—evident in motifs like the tea ceremony and sacred rope barriers (shimenawa)—informed the narrative of guests undergoing transformation amid blubber flensing and petroleum rituals, symbolizing the supplantation of natural substances by synthetic ones.[14][15] Whaling history provided a causal lens for examining human-animal hierarchies and technological dominance over biology, with the Nisshin Maru's operations in Nagasaki Bay serving as a microcosm of Japan's seafaring lore and resource extraction practices.[16] Barney integrated these elements without romanticizing them, grounding the work in observable processes of restraint and release observed in whaling rituals dating back centuries.[14]Production Process
Development and Pre-Production
The Drawing Restraint series originated in the late 1980s during Matthew Barney's studies at Yale University, where he began experimenting with self-imposed physical limitations to investigate their impact on creative processes, evolving into multimedia works combining sculpture, performance, and film.[1][12] Drawing Restraint 9 developed from an invitation extended to Barney around 2001 by the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, to create a site-specific exhibition, formalized by 2003 as an opportunity to revisit and expand the series' themes through Japanese cultural motifs.[17][12] The project centered on whaling traditions, Shinto rituals, and the guest-host dynamic in Japanese society, drawing conceptual parallels between biological cycles—such as the transformation of whale blubber into usable substances—and broader processes of restraint yielding productivity, including the conversion of organic matter into petroleum derivatives.[12][17] Pre-production involved extensive research, including Barney's visits to the Ise Shrine to study Shinto practices like the 20-year cyclical rebuilding of sacred structures, which informed motifs of renewal and human-nature interdependence; historical inquiries into Japanese whaling, such as the post-World War II repurposing of military vessels for whaling under General MacArthur's influence; and literary references like Moby-Dick for narrative framing.[17] Logistical planning focused on securing access to the Nisshin Maru, an operational factory whaling ship in Nagasaki Bay, to enable authentic filming of rituals and sculptures formed from petroleum jelly by the crew, incorporating elements like traditional Shinto wedding ceremonies and wrapping techniques for ceremonial occasions.[17][12] Collaboration with Björk, Barney's partner at the time, integrated early in development; they co-starred as the "Occidental Guests," with Björk composing the soundtrack to align with the film's minimal-dialogue structure, sometimes developing music and visuals concurrently or adjusting edits to pre-composed tracks, emphasizing a shared thematic interest in natural processes and ritualistic transformation.[17][1] Production was handled by Barney and Barbara Gladstone, funded primarily through individual investors, which posed challenges in cultural navigation and limited the project's theatrical distribution despite its exhibition debut in Kanazawa from July 2 to August 25, 2005.[18][17][12]Filming on the Nisshin Maru
Principal photography for Drawing Restraint 9 occurred aboard the Nisshin Maru, Japan's primary factory whaling ship and the world's only operational vessel of its kind at the time, while docked in Nagasaki Bay during 2005.[12][18] The production utilized the ship's industrial decks and interiors for the majority of scenes, integrating its real crew as extras to perform choreographed sequences simulating whaling rituals, including the flensing and processing of materials into large molds.[18][15] Matthew Barney and Björk, portraying the "Occidental Guests," filmed pivotal sequences on board, such as their arrival, a ceremonial tea preparation, and a transformative ritual involving immersion in heated substances that evoked whale fat—actually petroleum jelly, Barney's recurring sculptural medium, poured in quantities up to 25 tons to form deck molds known as "the Field."[17][19] The crew's participation extended to handling this material in assembly-line fashion, though accounts note their confusion with the artistic interventions amid the ship's utilitarian environment.[20] Logistically, the shoot adapted the Nisshin Maru's working spaces without disrupting its operational readiness, focusing on slow-paced, ritualistic takes that captured the vessel's metallic vastness and whaling apparatus as symbolic backdrops.[15] No actual whaling occurred during filming, as the ship remained in port; exterior ocean and ice scenes were simulated or composited separately to evoke its Antarctic voyages.[12]Technical and Logistical Challenges
Filming Drawing Restraint 9 aboard the Nisshin Maru, Japan's active factory whaling vessel docked in Nagasaki Bay, posed acute logistical hurdles stemming from the ship's operational status and the international sensitivities surrounding whaling. Permission to access the vessel, managed by the Institute of Cetacean Research for what Japan described as scientific hunts under a commercial moratorium loophole, involved navigating diplomatic and cultural barriers, as Western anti-whaling activism had intensified scrutiny on Japanese fleets. The whaling crew, focused on practical maritime tasks, expressed bewilderment at the artistic intrusions, leading to coordination strains between production staff and sailors unaccustomed to film sets.[20] Technical demands compounded these issues, particularly in handling 45,000 pounds of petroleum jelly shipped to the site for sculptural forms and ritual sequences, including a meticulously choreographed pour of 25 tons of molten material into molds via an assembly line adapted to the ship's decks. This required engineering solutions for heating, containment, and flow control amid the vessel's confined, greasy surfaces prone to instability from waves or crew movements, with risks of burns, spills, and equipment failures necessitating on-site safety protocols and redundant rigging. A storm during principal photography further disrupted schedules, challenging camera rigs, lighting, and performer positioning in the open-sea conditions off Nagasaki.[15][21] Set construction added layers of complexity, as production teams retrofitted ship compartments into symbolic spaces like a Shinto tea room for ceremonial scenes, demanding lightweight, modular installations that complied with maritime safety regulations while preserving the vessel's functionality. Cultural authenticity in depicting rituals, such as the Occidental Guests' transformative wedding, involved sourcing Japanese artisans for costumes and props, incurring delays from translation gaps and iterative approvals to avoid misrepresentation. Unlike conventional films, Barney's improvisational approach eschewed detailed previsualization, amplifying on-set problem-solving for effects like flensing simulations integrated with real whaling tools.[15][22]Core Elements and Themes
Narrative Framework
Drawing Restraint 9 presents a ritualistic narrative devoid of conventional dialogue or linear plot progression, instead unfolding through a series of symbolic sequences aboard the Japanese whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru in Nagasaki Bay. The protagonists, termed the Occidental Guests and portrayed by Matthew Barney and Björk, arrive as outsiders and engage in ceremonial acts drawing from Shinto purification rites and whaling practices, embodying the film's central theme of self-imposed restraint yielding creative release. This framework prioritizes visual and performative symbolism over causal storytelling, with events structured as escalating rituals that mirror processes of accumulation, transformation, and dissolution.[23][24] The narrative commences with the Guests' reception via an elaborate tea ceremony conducted by the ship's crew, establishing motifs of hospitality, preparation, and cultural exchange. Subsequent sequences depict meticulous rituals, including the infusion of petroleum jelly into the ship's decks to form a vast, blubber-like field, and the handling of organic materials such as ambergris, evoking alchemical and industrial transformations. These acts build tension through repetitive, laborious motions, symbolizing the accumulation of restraint, as the Guests don ceremonial attire and participate in Shinto-inspired purifications that blend human endeavor with maritime and natural forces.[25][26] Culminating in the whaling climax, the framework shifts to the flensing—or ritual skinning—of a massive whale carcass hauled aboard, a visceral process intercut with the Guests' own metamorphic ordeal. In a pivotal mating-ritual sequence during the tea ceremony's evolution, the Guests mutually flense each other with knives, shedding human form to emerge as whales, signifying the transcendence of restraint into fluid, instinctual states. This transformative arc, rooted in whaling sacraments and Shinto cyclical renewal, resolves the narrative without resolution, looping back to oceanic origins and underscoring themes of surrender to primal cycles.[25][26][27]Symbolism and Imagery
The central symbolism in Drawing Restraint 9 revolves around self-imposed restraint as a mechanism for fostering creativity and enabling transformation, a concept rooted in Matthew Barney's broader Drawing Restraint series where physical limitations, such as harnesses or trampolines, compel artistic production under duress.[7] In this installment, restraint manifests narratively through the Occidental Guests—portrayed by Barney and Björk—who arrive on the Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru and submit to ritualistic processes that culminate in their metamorphosis into whales, symbolizing a release of creative energy via disciplined surrender.[16] Barney describes this as a "love story" driven by environmental absorption, distinct from viral replication motifs in his earlier works, where tension from restraint atrophies and is restored by elemental forces like the "Petroleum Spirit."[16] Key imagery draws from Japanese whaling traditions and Shinto beliefs, with the Nisshin Maru serving as a dual metaphor for a whale and Japan itself, steeped in seafaring lore and ceremonial formality.[15] The Guests undergo a tea ceremony initiating their union, followed by immersion in petroleum jelly baths and a stylized flensing ritual—mirroring the processing of whale carcasses—where they excise each other's flesh to assume cetacean forms, evoking Shinto views of whales as ancestral spirits.[16] This transformation via "sushi communion" highlights guest-host dynamics, with ambergris representing the alchemical fusion of disparate elements into a novel oceanic substance.[16] Recurring visual motifs include Barney's "field emblem," a glyph denoting self-resistance that overlays organic systems, and the pouring of 25 tons of hot petroleum jelly on the ship's deck to form a monumental sculpture, which hardens amid oceanic conditions as a proxy for blubber supplanted by modern synthetics.[16][15] The "Petroleum Spirit" figure, adorned in face paint from coastal whale festivals (black for flukes, red for blood, white for bone), embodies elemental intervention, underscoring themes of ritual excess and biological reversion without explicit political commentary on whaling.[16] These elements collectively depict restraint not as inhibition but as a generative force, yielding visceral, biomechanical imagery of creation through destruction.[16]