Terror, trauma and The Cremaster Cycle: where the corporate meets the Masonic in the art of Matthew Barney

Matthew Barney is a New York based video and performance artist who has been dubbed by some in the art world as the genius of the age. In The Cremaster Cycle, five films produced since 1994, he utilises Masonic themes in both disguised and overt ways to offer a challenging critique of the Fraternal Order of Freemasonry in the contemporary American culture. Drawing on trauma theory this paper will argue that Barney's work provides a key insight into the role of initiation and the relationship between the psychology of an individual and the corruption of Masonic principles in contemporary culture.