Fumes Matthew Barne Studio

Fumes is Ari Marcopoulos’s photographic record of Matthew Barney’s studio in Long Island City, shot over four years, from 2011 to 2014.

Karma published the 420-page book in New York in 2015, credited to Marcopoulos and Matthew Barney Studio. Marcopoulos photographed the studio’s daily work, from the digging of an Egyptian death chamber to flooding during Hurricane Irene to the preparation of Barney’s 2014 film River of Fundament. Black-and-white and colour spreads show workers moving, moulding and fusing toxic materials, with pictorial montages interwoven. The standard edition is 1,500 copies. Karma also made a hardcover special edition of 100, each with a signed print.

Marcopoulos was born in Amsterdam in 1957 and lives and works in New York. Self-taught, he first worked in the United States as a printing assistant to Andy Warhol, and he was in the Whitney Biennial in 2002 and 2010. Wikipedia credits him with more than 200 books and limited-edition zines.