Cremaster 2

Dramatic conflict emerges in Cremaster 2, a provocative if conjectural portrait of murderer Gary Gilmore and his family. Cremaster 2 links Gary Gilmore (played by Barney) and Gilmore's clairvoyant grandmother to Harry Houdini (played by Norman Mailer, whose The Executioner's Song tells Gilmore's real-life story).

Settings shift from Chicago's 1893 Columbian Exposition to the Bonneville Salt Flats—where Gilmore's execution is staged as a rodeo—to a digitally fabricated Mormon Tabernacle. (79 mins.)

A separate ticket is required for each Cremaster film. Series packages are available to the general public for $25 and to students and Wexner Center members for $15.

Image Credit
Production photograph
Copyright 1999 Matthew Barney
Photo: Michael James O'Brien
Courtesy Barbara Gladstone