Drawing Restraint 9 Review

Drawing Restraint 9
A big blob of Vaseline, self-harming Westerners and Japanese whalers combine to labour a metaphor for the creative process.

by Helen O'Hara |
Published on
Release Date:

28 Sep 2007

Running Time:

135 minutes

Certificate:

TBC

Original Title:

Drawing Restraint 9

Conceptual artist Matthew Barney and conceptual popster Björk team up for this art instalation of a film.

The plot, if such a word can be used, concerns a mould full of Vaseline on the deck of a Japanese whaling ship, a Western couple slicing bits off each other in a flooded tea-room below decks, and much pseudo-religious weirdness.

Japanese whalers, it seems, sail with a full complement of geishas and small children in case there’s a chance to create a laboured metaphor for the creative process.

The Björk-composed soundtrack veers from lovely to irritating, but the whole long, drawn-out result is pretentious art nonsense.

Arty has never been so farty.
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