Matthew Barney Explores Myth, Sports, and Power in His New Performance Work Tactical Parallax at Aspen Art Museum

30 July 2025

Photograph: Photo: Maria Baranova-Suzuki. Courtesy the artist and the Aspen Art Museum

In the cavernous halls of a repurposed World War II drill hall in Aspen, Colorado, Matthew Barney returns with a performance that feels as much like a ritual as it does an artwork. His new project, Tactical Parallax, opens as part of the Aspen Art Museum’s Air 2025 festival, situating Barney at the intersection of mythology, sports, and the unsettling realities of American identity.

Known for his cinematic and sculptural explorations in works like The Cremaster Cycle and Redoubt, Barney continues his career‑long investigation of how myth and culture intertwine with the body and its rituals. This time, the artist takes aim at the architecture of power, performance, and collective memory, staging his latest piece in a space that once trained soldiers and now invites audiences to wrestle with their own roles as witnesses.

Barney has described the piece as an exploration of tactical strategies, both physical and psychological, drawing heavily on the aesthetics of American football. He uses the sport not just as a symbol of physical prowess but as a metaphor for institutionalized aggression and national mythology. Bleachers, stadium‑like installations, and medical‑themed spaces collide with sculptural elements that evoke ancient warrior iconography. This juxtaposition of sports and historical ritual exposes how contemporary culture continues to recycle old narratives of dominance and competition under new guises.

The title Tactical Parallax hints at a shift in perception, a reframing of the familiar. As audiences move through the performance’s varied spaces, they are encouraged to consider how context alters their understanding of what they see. Barney has long refused to settle for easy interpretation, and this piece is no exception. By combining athletic choreography with evocative soundscapes and symbolic props, he builds a layered environment that asks viewers to question the structures that shape cultural consensus. The physicality of the performance blurs the line between spectacle and ceremony, demanding an active and emotional response rather than detached observation.

For Barney, this is deeply personal work. He has resisted what he calls “consensus culture,” pushing instead for art that unsettles and challenges both artist and audience. He sees the role of the artist as inherently political, particularly at a moment when cultural institutions and national identities are under intense scrutiny. In recent interviews, Barney has spoken about his responsibility to engage with the turbulent sociopolitical landscape, framing his work as a dialogue between individual and collective histories. His refusal to produce easily digestible narratives positions Tactical Parallax as an artwork that resists complacency.

Critics have noted how the project feels like a natural continuation of Barney’s past work, yet distinct in its immediacy. Where The Cremaster Cycle sprawled across multiple films and media, Tactical Parallax compresses its scope into a concentrated, high‑energy performance. It retains his signature fusion of allegory and material experimentation but situates it in a context that feels urgent and current. The use of a former military site amplifies the performance’s themes of control and confrontation, transforming the drill hall into an arena where historical memory collides with contemporary spectacle.

The performance also challenges Aspen’s reputation as a cultural safe haven for the elite. By premiering such a raw and confrontational work at an institution often associated with prestige, Barney flips the script on what kind of art belongs in such spaces. He turns the venue into a site of reckoning, using its history and cultural cachet to heighten the tension between exclusivity and accessibility. This layering of meaning speaks to Barney’s ongoing preoccupation with contradictions between beauty and violence, inclusion and exclusion, play and warfare.

Audience reactions at the premiere reflected the work’s polarizing intensity. Some viewers were visibly moved by its bold symbolism and emotional charge, while others appeared unsettled by its refusal to offer resolution. Yet this spectrum of response seems intentional. Barney has never sought consensus, instead pushing for a form of art that invites discomfort as a catalyst for reflection. The performance’s experimental structure ensures that no two experiences are the same, reinforcing its parallax metaphor: meaning shifts depending on where and how you stand.

As Tactical Parallax runs through the Air 2025 festival, it cements Barney’s status as one of the most daring voices in contemporary art. It is not merely a performance but a provocation a call to reconsider the narratives that shape national identity and personal belief. In refusing to give easy answers, Barney offers something rarer: the space to sit with complexity, to wrestle with what it means to be both spectator and participant in the cultural rituals that define us.