Journeys and Cross-Generational Narratives in Barry Anderson’s The Janus Restraint

A labyrinth evolves before us in Barry Anderson’s The Janus Restraint, the ongoing

multimedia project begun in 2012. Anderson has created a kaleidoscope of epic seminarrative

proportions, which merges mythology, romantic landscapes, and personal

symbolism.The project could be considered an extended portrait of the artist’s son, who’s

featured heavily in the work, although such a simplification would do a disservice to the

richness of the piece.

Still from Barry Anderson’s The Janus Restraint. Image Courtesy of the Artist

In 2010, Anderson took a trip across the American landscape, visiting national parks and

landmarks with his father and his son. The journey extended for weeks, becoming the

catalyst for a tradition that connects three generations of family and laid the foundation for

the project that would become The Janus Restraint. Through these experiences, in addition

to a solo sojourn to Iceland, Anderson has generated works of cinematic beauty and

moments of transcendence in what is ultimately a metaphorical reimagining of boyhood rites

of passage.

The Janus Project shifts across disciplines, incorporating video, digital construction, black

and white photography, and sculptural installations that progress and build on one another.

They culminated in a series of exhibitions with a variety of these elements shown. Each form

complicates and layers the work, recording time in different ways as we witness Anderson’s

public and private experiences coalesce. In one moment the camera pans slowly across a

deserted Icelandic mountainscape and takes our breath away, in another, we watch candid

images of Anderson’s son investigating new terrain in a style that suggests home videos. In

the midst of the majestic and the intimate, all is permitted.

Still from Barry Anderson’s The Janus Restraint. Image Courtesy of the Artist

Collectively these videos reveal the Icelandic landscape and the Aurora borealis. As the

Northern Lights and additional visual cues to Scandinavian lore accumulate, Anderson

establishes a link to Norse mythology. Here we come to see the Bifröst, a bridge to the gods,

and understand the natural relationship between a simple baseball bat carried by Anderson’s

son and Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir. For a contemporary audience familiar with Marvel comics

and immersed in a pop culture, saturated with their corresponding superhero movies, these

connections provide us access and a vernacular through which to approach the work.

Anderson uses music as a vital element in his practice, one that he pushes as he

experiments with different narratological structures. In addition to creating his own

soundtracks, he has been working with a variety of musicians to score his videos. Like the

unfamiliar influences from which his scores grow, Anderson’s symbolic language provides a

slow burn: noticeable but not obvious, intimate but also indirect. The more time we spend

with The Janus Restraint, the more the symbols reveal themselves and generate unexpected

connections—from Icelandic mythology to Americana—establishing a visceral and

psychological space that brings together disparate narratives. The Roman god Janus was

two-faced, looking towards the past and the future, and was also known as the god of

beginnings, transitions, time, duality, passages, and endings. The restraint Anderson

references in his title may be a loose metaphor for the eternal search within the work for

himself and the viewer, on various but akin journeys.

Still from Barry Anderson’s The Janus Restraint. Image Courtesy of the Artist

Anderson’s pristine video quality and cinematic approach create a surreal experience when

presented on multiple screens in front of the viewer, challenging the expectation of singlechannel

narrative. Seen across screens or broken up on individually, Anderson requires

viewers to divide their attention and eventually experience all the images simultaneously. It is

easy to get lost in the labyrinth of imagery and psychedelic colors, to lose your grounding in

the shifting patterns, or to get caught in the symbolism and density of narrative. Anderson

and his son reveal themselves to be adept collaborators and guides, however, inviting us to

accompany them across unfamiliar terrain through private experiences which always just

elude our understanding. Their shared vision welcomes the viewer into their journey of

monumental scope, suggesting that even when you’re not exactly certain where you are, you

might perhaps stay awhile and enjoy the view.

This essay is part of a series commissioned, in collaboration with Informality Blog, for the

exhibition Against the Screen at La Esquina Gallery (1000 W 25 Street KCMO) open

from August 25 through October 7, 2017. These pieces, co-edited by Melaney Mitchell

(Founder & Senior Editor of Informality Blog) and Lynnette Miranda (Curator-in-Residence at

Charlotte Street Foundation) focus on a shared goal of bringing the eyes of national writers

to the work of Kansas City-based artists.