Response to Matthew Barney

From reading this article I am most impressed by Matthew Barney's conceptual exploration, inventiveness, and discovery of himself. At first glance Barney seems like a very strange artist,unrelatable,someone who is completely out there and searching for his artistic focus, but I think because he is so out there and so willing to incorporate his interests in medicine, American football, freemasonry, prosthetic body parts, body orifices, and Harry Houdini, as well as himself he creates work that defines his understanding and approach to art. Barney's work is encoded with multiple layers of meaning, and I enjoy that because he has presented his audience with an image and allowed the view to make their own interpretations.