DRAWING RESTRAINT 26

Matthew Barney
2024-06-16

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0 min

Executed, filmed and presented in Gladstone’s 21st Street gallery, the work is performed as a duet between dancer Raphael Xavier (SECONDARY’s Jack Tatum) and Barney (as quarterback Ken Stabler). Half performance and half presentation of trace, the work charts the repeated physical and psychological damage sustained by both players in endless replay. While Tatum’s mark-making on the gallery walls is the result of a series of running drills conducted while he impacts a cast clay weight, other gestures belie something more ominous. One of the first NFL players to be diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, Stabler leaves his imprint with a metal barbell and clay weight attached to his skull.