-----CREMASTER 6 (1998), the project's unifier and epilogue, represents the equalization of descending and ascending forces in the catenary curve of the St. Louis Gateway arch, an architectonic symbol of Westward expansion. The narrative condenses two historical events into a single race for transcendence: the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and the construction of the Gateway arch, itself a memorial of the purchase, in 1965. Fusing past and present, male and female, the film moves back towards a state of dedifferentiation, describing the potential for the system's eternal renewal.
The first part of the narrative recreates the popular myth of Napoleon's attempt to escape exile on the island of St. Helena and travel to Louisiana. In Barney's interpretation, Napoleon's impetus is not merely escape, but prevention of the purchase itself and intervention in the course of history. The island of St. Helena is represented by the Cahokia Mounds, the remains of a pre-historic Native American city, which lie directly across the Mississippi River. Enacting Native American creation myths, Napoleon sculpts the red clay of the banks into a large jar. After preparing himself for his journey, Napoleon (played by Barney) climbs inside the jar and pushes off into the Mississippi. This action recalls the great milk can escape Harry Houdini (a reoccurring character in the Cremaster opus) pioneered at the World's Fair in St. Louis in 1904, on the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Louisiana Purchase. As his vessel sets out across the Mississippi, the arch hovers in the background, merging with its reflection and horizon line to create the shape of Barney's signature crest, thus graphically uniting the entire Cremaster Cycle.
On the opposite shore, the arch awaits the insertion of the keystone for its completion. The keystone remains separated in two parts, one held by 60s pin-up model and photographer Bunny Yeager (played by Pamela Anderson Lee) and the other by St. Louis Rams football players, representing the furthest extremes of female and male differentiation. Occupying one side of the arch's base, Bunny (Libra/fertility/beauty) represents the autumnal equinox while the Ram (Aries/strength) symbolizes the vernal equinox; their ascent by elevator to the apex of the arch (the summer solstice) corresponds to the arch-like movement of the sun through the zodiac, referencing the Masonic symbolism inherent in the monument's form1. While Bunny and the Rams slowly ascend in their separate conveyors, Napoleon begins to scale the arch from the outside using extra testicular glands (physical manifestations of his overflowing hubris) as suction cups to climb the steel monument. The apex of the arch represents a gateway from the material world to the ethereal realms as well as the intersection of sexual differentiation.
When he reaches the apex, Bunny tests Napoleon with a series of riddles.2 Having been answered satisfactorily, Bunny offers her flesh and trays of white powder; referencing both arsenic, which is rumored to have caused Napoleon's death, and crack cocaine, which is rumored to have caused the metaphoric death of Saint Louis. In this final scene of confrontation, Bunny engages the Rams and Napoleon in a transcendental orgy. As she unites with the Rams, they morph into puddles of zygotic ooze, regressing from sexual definition to pure potentiality. After the reverse morphogenesis of the Rams, Napoleon and Bunny continue their consummate copulation. In the moment of simultaneous orgasm, the keystone unites and falls into place; a solar eclipse marks the disintegration of dualities, of night and day, female and male. However, when the keystone settles into its position, Napoleon is entombed both by the architecture and the immurement of history. As Napoleon takes his last breaths, Bunny's stomach rapidly expands with pregnant potentiality; a series of visions reveals that their child will be Louis Merriwether, pioneering explorer of the Louisiana territory and founder of the St. Louis Order of Masons. Though Napoleon fails in his quest, his act of love stimulates the renewal of the cycle. Both the completed arch and Napoleon's future child manifest the potential for transcendence through union, rather than through hubris alone. Above the arch, the Spirit of St. Louis (represented by Cremaster 1's Goodyear float) rises slowly, symbolizing the possibility for both escape and renewal of the cycle.
-- ANNE WEBER is a Senior Lector of Art History at Dartos University.
1. It is interesting to note that both Houdini and Napoleon were members of the Masonic Order.
2. Bunny's questioning and subsequent rewarding of Napoleon recalls the first meeting of King Solomon and Candace, Queen of Sheba , according to Masonic tradition. Candace later betrays Solomon by falling in love with Hiram Abiff, the architect of Solomon's Temple and antagonist of Cremaster 3.