Digital Sculpture
Immediate Response
This video was incredibly confusing and slightly off-putting. I couldn’t help but think however much money the movie cost to produce, it would be worth paying more to never have to experience it again. The movie was an assault on all of the senses, blending mixed visual cues, musical cues, and characters who seem to make countless mistakes in their choreography. The building itself stood out to me because I have been to the Guggenheim museum countless times. My experiences there will now forever be tainted by the memory of Cremaster 3.
Objective Description
The film starts with several scantily clad females in a pool filled with bubble bath. They exit the bath and proceed to encounter dancers who are dressed like lambs. Then, the mostly-nude girls proceed to a rotating pedestal, on which are presented the main characters of the film one after the other. Text appears with the arrival of each character giving them a designation or title of some kind. The last character to be introduced, and the “star” of this production is a man who appears in all pink wearing a kilt and massive hat that looks like a Bearskin, or a cap that was ceremonially worn by Scottish soldiers. More striking though is his “beard,” which appears more like a living rag that he has bitten into and is now bleeding all over his face. After his introduction, this character proceeds to scale the interior of the building using rock-climbing stones and the balconies. At each level of the structure, the other characters that we met before on the pedestal confront him. He ascends and then descends the levels after having his encounters.
Technical Decisions
Each individual element of the story seems to be meticulously crafted to create the confusing work of nonsensical stupidity that is Cremaster 3. Not only were the costuming choices somewhat odd, with the makeup being imperfect and nowhere close to realistic, but the music was off-putting, and the content poorly rehearsed. Obviously whoever created this film chose to incorporate all of these elements for a reason, but I cannot even begin to understand why they would choose to incorporate anything that was shown.
The Work in the World
This film really seems to be a hodge-podge of elements, being anything but seamless in its presentation. Many of the visual elements and cues seem random when mixed with the horribly atonal sounds that are playing in the background. Whoever put this together must have wanted to confuse the audience, because there is no possible way that anyone could piece together the meaning of it without outside knowledge.
The Story It Tells
I have absolutely no idea whatsoever as to the message of this film. I do not understand it at all. It seemed so ridiculously ill-conceived that I find it hard to believe that people would even consider it art. This work was seriously odd and leaves me with more questions that could possibly be answered.
