The Cremaster Cycle: A Critical Comparison

1. Both works use many various medias to express the art, for example, Cremaster Cycle uses film, sculpture, paintings, and even writing to express its ideas. With Womanhouse, architecture, paintings, sculpture, color, and even readymades, were used to express the meanings of the Womanhouse. Conceptually, each work expresses very different ideas, yet excuses their expression in similar ways. One work is made to express the process of art creation, and another is a social work made to speak up for feminism. To show this meaning however, both works use rather vile and strange tactics. They use nudity and sexual references as well as some gore, and perhaps creepiness, to express their meanings. This, of course, gave them their fair share of controversy. Womanhouse is more related to the culture of its time of creation, and is making jabs at societal norms. On the other hand, Cremaster Cycle makes the same jabs at these norms, yet for different reasons and ambitions. Both were rather rejected by society at first, however viewers began to warm up to the vileness of these works (as with the Cremaster Cycle at it being regarded as “the best …show more content…
When compared, the two work’s meanings could not be further apart, as one is a political/social statement and the other is a statement about the art process. However, the Cremaster Cycle begins to open further when compared with Womanhouse. Womanhouse was about women, who felt they were trapped for most of their lives, to set themselves free in this house and create anything with it, no matter how vile it may become. With comparison with Womanhouse, Cremaster Cycle becomes a work about Barney liberating his deep, subconscious thoughts and feelings towards art, and perhaps society. Without caring for the consequences, he set out to make a 6.6 hour film about the creation of art, and did so by spilling his hidden thoughts and feelings into this film. This further elevated its success and status, and thus, a masterpiece was