SECONDARY is a five-channel video installation by Matthew Barney, performed in the artist’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 paralysed. 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, Jonathan Bepler, Raven Chacon, Mark Godfrey, Juliette Lecorne,  Helen Marten,  Maggie Nelson, and David Thomson
Author: Matthew Barney
Edited by Louise Neri

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Paul McCarthy’s work Stainless Steel Butt Plug, 2007, is featured in the group show Sex Now, at the NRW Forum, Düsseldorf. Across ten themed rooms, the exhibition stages over 400 objects in an intimate dialogue about sexuality and society.

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We congratulate Matthew Barney on becoming an Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Matthew Barney has been elected into the Department of Arts and will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters during its annual Ceremonial in May 2024.

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