Redoubt 2019

Matthew Barney's photograph, titled 'Redoubt' presents us with a suspended figure amidst a stark, wintry landscape. The prone figure hanging on the tree is reminiscent of the classical motif of the suspended body, think of the Hanged Man in tarot imagery or mythological narratives of sacrifice and transformation. In ancient Norse mythology, Odin hung himself on the tree Yggdrasil to gain knowledge, a potent symbol of self-sacrifice for enlightenment. Here, Barney offers us a contemporary echo of this primal image, where a figure in camouflage gear is suspended, seemingly in a state of observation or perhaps even purgatory. The tension between the natural and the artificial, between the serene landscape and the stark image of a man suspended by ropes, speaks to our subconscious anxieties about nature's dominance and humanity's precarious place within it. This enduring image, reappearing across cultures and epochs, reflects the cyclical nature of human experience, echoing through the corridors of time in a continuous, evolving dialogue.