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In Matthew Barney’s universe, petroleum jelly is the new duct tape. The shape-shifting substance with a million uses has been integral to the multimedia artist’s 20-year exploration of transformation and sexuality. Most recently, Barney – a chameleon in his own right – appears as General Douglas MacArthur, the American shogun of occupied Japan, in the short film Drawing Restraint 13. It plays this summer at SFMOMA’s full survey of his ongoing Drawing Restraint project, the source for his iconic Cremaster series. The vignette is an extension of Drawing Restraint 9, the recently released epic in which Barney and partner Björk portray the “guests” on a supernatural odyssey aboard a Japanese whaling ship. It features a soundtrack by the avant-pop diva. Barney, whose crew works on f/x blockbusters like King Kong, is editing one of his live SFMOMA performances into yet another film for the show, which runs from June 23 to September 17.

- Todd Jatras

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