‘Cremaster Cycle’ is all about the journey

If you’re willing to see them as dreams, that’s several hours inside Barney’s mindscape, explored in five different sleeps. Accordingly, they work effectively as a parody of Hollywood blockbusting entertainment: sequels, a vast complex of self-referential feats, merchandising, and an inscrutable megastar. Barney directed, wrote, coproduced, and stars in each film, in addition to conceiving and creating the sculptures.

The cycle refers to creation — the birth, enactment, death, and regeneration of an idea, of a myth, and of self. And it alludes rather vividly to the reproductive and endocrine systems, while dismantling what we find comfortable or familiar about masculinity — namely Barney’s. The Busby Berkeley-inspired pageant in the crisp “Cremaster 1,’’ from 1995, features a troupe of dancing girls and is topped off by a hostess guiding two Goodyear blimps as though they were party balloons.

The films were not numbered or released in chronological order; “Cremaster 4,’’ the first in the series, appeared 16 years ago, and “Cremaster 1’’ came the next year. But seen in numerical order, as the Kendall is presenting them, they suggest a continuum. The cycle culminates with “Cremaster 3,’’ the conclusive fifth installment, which was released in 2005. Of the five, “3’’ is the most unknowable, the most richly open to interpretation, and by far the longest at 182 minutes. It’s also the only one whose digital-video format is the most cinematically murky, and the most cryptic and deeply haunted.