09/02/2026
Matthew Barney’s 1988 video work “SCABACTION” is included in the 16th Gwangju Biennale “You Must Change Your Life,” on view September 5–November 15, 2026.
“SCABACTION” is Barney’s first video work, made while he was still an art student, several years before the epic cinematic odysseys of “The CREMASTER Cycle” (1994–2002). Rarely screened publicly, it already introduces themes that would define his later practice: the body as an organic construction site, or as one part within a larger and more abstract apparatus.
In the work a strange mechanical-sexual substance lubricates the gears of this apparatus, while a sculpture is welded nearby. In an extreme close-up, a pair of pliers removes an ingrown hair from a male jawbone, twisting into the flesh of its human host like an invasive species or alien force. Endurance, injury, desire, and material change become inseparable, producing a body caught between discipline and mutation.
Learn more about the Gwangju Biennale at the link in bio.
Images: Video stills of Matthew Barney. “SCABACTION,” 1988. Single-channel color video with stereo sound. Duration: 7 min 55 sec.
