Made by her partner Matthew Barney, Drawing Restraint 9 follows artistic religious rituals of the Shinto, a Japanese religion which used to be Japan’s state religion up until World War II. Now it’s not so common and this weird and wonderful film was born from Matthews interest in religion. Sadly he’s gone on record to say it will never get a DVD release as he doesn’t believe in reproducing art. While that’s all well and good, why not just release it as a non-profit production or something similar? So many people are wanting to see it (it’s only been available in a few art theatres in the USA) that I’m sure it’d be worth while.
Having said that, it is very niche and the soundtrack itself illuminated to that with its 10 minute long “Holographic Entrypoint” which was a Japanese man chanting atonal and the slightly ear piercing sho instrument which doesn’t always sound as listenable as it should. There were some great tracks on the soundtrack which Bjork composed (Storm is furious, Gratitude with Wil Olburn is beautiful and Cetacea is like a lost b-side) but I’m sure it’d be enhanced with the visuals that it was meant to be heard with.
Trailer / Bath Scene / Construction Dance
