Matthew Barney

SECONDARY is a five-channel video installation, performed in Barney's Long Island City studio in 2023, then in London, Paris, and Los Angeles in 2024. The plot revolves around an accident that occurred during a football game in 1978, when Oakland Raiders' Jack Tatum delivered an open field hit on Darryl Stingley, a wide receiver for the New England Patriots. Stingley was left paralyzed. The tragic event remained seared in the minds of American fans, including Barney himself, a youth-league quarterback at the time.

Through allusion to American sports culture, SECONDARY explores the complex intersection of violence, its representation, and its celebration. It reimagines the game through a unique movement vocabulary. The result is a physical study that focuses on every element of the game, from drills and pre-game rituals to moments of impact and their slow-motion replays.

Volume 1 explores SECONDARY in depth, with essays by leading contemporary voices. Volume 2 maps the life of Barney's former Long Island City studio, where SECONDARY premiered to the public.
 

Contributions by Eric Banks and Jonathan Bepler and Raven Chacon and Mark Godfrey and Juliette Lecorne and Helen Marten and Maggie Nelson and Louise Neri and David Thomson, Author Matthew Barney