Cremaster 1

The action takes place in two blimps and on a football field covered with blue Astroturf in Boise, Idaho, where Matthew Barney, while still a student, tries his hand at professional sports. On the surface of Bronco Stadium, a group of showgirls dance in geometric patterns that replicate arrangements of grapes. The grapes are laid out by a young woman named Goodyear, who, along with several hostesses, simultaneously inhabits both blimps floating above the field. Kaleidoscopic compositions are formed in the contoured shape of gonads. The action steadily builds in rhythm to soft, ambient music reminiscent of jazz standards. Devoid of dialogue, the film alludes to the musical conventions of the American choreographer and director Busby Berkeley. Cremaster 1 refers to the first androgynous phase of human sexual development, and also to the state that the artist calls pure potential. Although the film was the third one made, it is in fact the first, introductory part of the series known as The Cremaster Cycle.