Contemporary artists come no more flamboyant than Matthew Barney. He’s a kind of all-American superhero garbed in international gallery chic, one whose chosen media include: petroleum jelly that simulates whale blubber; his five stream-of-consciousness “Cremaster” films, full-tilt fantasias that conjure, among so much else, such oddities as Norman Mailer and Busby Berkeley-esque lines of choreographed cowboys; and his own body, which he might transform into a prancing satyr, for instance, or submit to physical restraints during extended exercises, public performances that test his stamina and agility as he tries to create drawings while, say, racing up the side of a wall.

Also, he’s got the coolest girlfriend: Björk, his frequent collaborator, Icelandic pop diva, and occasional actress, who is known for her charmingly eccentric recordings and for showing up at the Grammy Awards in a dress shaped like a swan. They are a perfect couple.

Mr. Barney, who turns 40 this spring, may strike some as mad, but he is profoundly methodical: as much craftsman and engineer as strange genius, addicted to the long, difficult, and obsessive process of realizing his visions as he is to the final result. That petroleum jelly, huge wobbly vats of the stuff, doesn’t get there on its own. Alison Chernick’s documentary “Matthew Barney: No Restraint,” dives headfirst into the goo with its subject, explicating what, for art-world outsiders, must look like an aesthetic of wild contrivance and six-figure self-indulgence.

Actually, that’s exactly what it is, and what also makes Mr. Barney so enjoyable to regard. Not only does he have access to a boundless imagination, he has access to the large sums of investor money required to manifest its most surreal and vivid extremes. He’s also a ruggedly handsome ex-jock who, not unlike David Lynch, brings a straight-arrow, red-state bearing to work that feels deliriously off-the-wall.

Matter-of-fact to a fault, Ms. Chernick outlines all this in the usual parade of talking-head interviews, archival video clips, and scenes from Mr. Barney’s movies, though she spends most of her time with Mr. Barney on the Japanese whaling ship he rented as the set for his 2005 film, “Drawing Restraint 9.” It’s a bit of an inside job. The documentary appears designed as a companion piece to the film, and to Mr. Barney’s spring 2006 show at the Gladstone Gallery, which might explain its flat affect.

There is much ado about that goo — 40,000 pounds of it — and the priceless reactions of the Japanese crew that mans the vessel. Their faces seem torn between a mask of natural stoicism and severe bemusement. The camera details Mr. Barney’s efforts to synthesize Japanese ritual and myth, particularly as it applies to the enveloping sea, with his own private iconography. Discoursing on these matters while standing on deck, his shoulders wrapped in extravagant fur, the former J. Crew model comes across part Zoolander, part Carl Sagan. Later, he turns Iron Chef, preparing a batch of weird sushi for the dozens of seamen onboard. The stuff looks like some concoction of seaweed and whale blubber that only Anthony Bourdain would eat. It’s one of many comic moments that enliven “No Restraint,” though it’s hard to know if Ms. Chernick really intends to seize upon such occasions or is mostly willing simply to cosign her subject’s pronouncements.

There’s enough basic material of engaging idiosyncrasy to compress into this brief, quickly paced video that the lack of any real perspective doesn’t impede enjoyment. Watching Björk concoct her music for “Drawing Restraint 9” proves as fascinating as any of her mate’s endeavors, particularly her interest in developing a subharmonic soundtrack of incredibly low bass notes for a maritime parade sequence. Like Mr. Barney, she proves a congenial and intently focused sort, grounded where her experiments soar into the ether (or slink under your skin). Together, in their customized outfits, the artist and the singer look like a pair of esoteric Andromedan monks visiting for tea on the Starship Enterprise.

The world Mr. Barney creates on the Japanese vessel is no less fantastic.”No Restraint” offers a viewfinder glimpse for those unwilling or unlikely to stow away for one of the artist’s long cinematic journeys.