Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler collaborated on a project inspired by Norman Mailer's novel Ancient Evenings. The project, River of Fundament, is a nontraditional opera with live acts performed across the US, combining documentation of three live performances with scenes set in Mailer's Brooklyn Heights apartment. The story reimagines Mailer as his own protagonist, reincarnating three times, and features a memorial gathering, carousing, and a struggle for dominance between Norman and the pharaoh Usermare. The project also explores the transformation of an automobile, from a 1967 Chrysler to a 2001 Ford, through three live performances.
River of Fundament
Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler collaborated on a project inspired by Norman Mailer's novel Ancient Evenings, set in pharaonic Egypt, which was conceived as a nontraditional opera.
