Journey through the Egyptian Afterlife with Matthew Barney’s “River of Fundament” September 1, 2016

I was thrilled when MFAH film curator Marian Luntz e-mailed me about working with the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston to share Matthew Barney’s River of Fundament with Houston audiences. This is a film that must be watched in a theater where one’s attention is controlled, because the two things one hears first about it are that it is very long and very demanding.

I visited Barney’s studio when he first arrived in New York City, while I was running the legendary alternative space White Columns. Even when Barney’s work was still primitive-looking, his desires to engage gigantic themes were present. His early performance-based videos remain unforgettable. I fully intended to do a project with Barney at White Columns, but that space was devoted to under-known artists, and Barney became famous quickly.

His newest film, River of Fundament, deals with mythic ways of understanding our bodily functions. Our bodies are earthly vessels that transform foodstuffs into both our life force and feces. The Egyptians, without the advantage of scientific images, made stories of both our bodies and spirits, separating the organs after death to be guarded by gods on what was understood as an actual journey into other realms.

Norman Mailer, a great (if erratic) novelist, tried to wrestle with Egyptian cosmology in his decade-long writing project Ancient Evenings. In that novel, Mailer tries to describe the journey after death as the Egyptian minds understood that realm. Mailer (who acted in earlier Barney films) suggested that Barney read it, and after some resistance, Barney found the Egyptian world a compelling theatrical metaphor that is ever more meaningful today.

Barney, who worked with musical partner Jonathan Bepler on River of Fundament, describes the film as a type of opera. I am a lover of long Wagner operas like Tannhäuser, so time-based artworks that use their long format to fully transport the audience to other realms are pure pleasure to me. And—as with opera—when your eyes feel overloaded, you can close them and let yourself be transported by the sound.

I have never found even the longest of Barney’s movies anything less than compelling, and I luxuriate in his exquisitely wrought image-making. The critical response to River of Fundament, like that for Mailer’s Ancient Evenings, has been mixed, but most of those whose opinions I trust tell me that the nearly six hours spent are well worth it for an all-inclusive journey through the Egyptian afterlife.

Bill Arning, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, joins us on Friday, September 16, to introduce a weekend of “River of Fundament,” which screens in three parts. Learn more and get tickets.