Synopses & Reviews
Ron Athey is an iconic figure in the development of contemporary art and performance. In his frequently bloody portrayals of life, death, crisis, and fortitude in the time of AIDS, Athey calls into question the limits of artistic practice. These limits enable Athey to explore in his work key themes including gender, sexuality, SandM and radical sex, queer activism, post-punk and industrial culture, tattooing and body modification, ritual, and religion. Now in a second edition,
Pleading in the Blood foregrounds the prescience of Atheyand#8217;s work, exploring how his visceral practice foresaw and precipitated the central place afforded sexuality, identity, and the body in art and critical theory in the late twentieth century.
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and#147;Pleading in the Blood offers a remarkable and enduring contribution to literatures on performance and contemporary art. . . . The potency of myth in Ron Atheyand#8217;s work is the problem tackled by this formidable new book.and#8221; and#151;Contemporary Theatre Review
Review
"The performance artist is given space to tell his own childhood which is fitting as both now literary image and visual image are under Atheyand#8217;s control. The whole book appears a lesson in discipline. It seeks to dispel myth."
Review
and#8220;Pleading in the Blood: The Art and Performances of Ron Athey is a beautifully illustrated catalogue raisonnand#233; in which Athey's extensive oeuvre is analyzed, placing him alongside Jean Genet, Antonin Artaud and Yukio Mishima, as well as contemporary art-world figures Chris Burden and Bob Flanagan. Athey's thoughtful biographical writing is interspersed with essays and texts by artists Guillermo Gand#243;mez-Peand#241;a, Lydia Lunch, Catherine Opie, Bruce LaBruce, Antony Hegarty, Robert Wilson and leading academics.and#8221;
Review
"Athey represents one of the most compelling contemporary interpretations of the radicaland#8212;scandalous, as some theologians sayand#8212;notion that sovereignty can manifest as and be experienced via abjection."
Synopsis
Ron Athey is an iconic figure in contemporary art and performance. In his frequently bloody portrayals of life, death, crisis, and fortitude in the time of AIDS, Athey calls into question the limits of artistic practice. These limits enable Athey to explore key themes including gender, sexuality, radical sex, queer activism, post-punk and industrial culture, tattooing and body modification, ritual, and religion. This landmark publication includes Atheyandrsquo;s own writings, commissioned essays by maverick artists and leading academics, and full-color images of Atheyandrsquo;s art and performances since the early 1980s. The diverse range of artistic and critical contributors to the book reflects Atheyandrsquo;s creative and cultural impact, among them musician Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons who contributed a foreword.
Synopsis
Ron Athey is a central figure in the development of performance art since the early 1990s, and this is the first book devoted to his practice. Pleading in the Blood foregrounds the prescience of Atheyand#8217;s work, exploring how his visceral practice foresaw and precipitated the central place afforded sexuality, identity, and the body in art and critical theory in the late-twentieth century.
Ron Athey is an iconic figure in the development of contemporary art and performance. In his frequently bloody portrayals of life, death, crisis, and fortitude in the time of AIDS, Athey calls into question the limits of artistic practice. These limits enable Athey to explore key themes including: gender, sexuality, SM and radical sex, queer activism, post-punk and industrial culture, tattooing and body modification, ritual, and religion.
This landmark publicationincludes Atheyand#8217;s own writings, and commissioned essays by maverick artists and leading academics. It showcases full-colour images of Atheyand#8217;s art and performances since the early 1980s, including extensive documentation of solo performances and ensemble productions, and his photographic collaborations with other visual artists.
Pleading in the Blood includes three newly commissioned essays on different aspects of Atheyand#8217;s work by Adrian Heathfield, Amelia Jones, and Dominic Johnson. These scholarly essays are complemented by shorter texts by Homi K. Bhabha, Jennifer Doyle, Tim Etchells, Guillermo Gand#243;mez-Peand#241;a, Matthew Goulish, Lydia Lunch, Juliana Snapper, Julie Tolentino, Alex Binnie, Catherin (Saalfield) Gund, Bruce LaBruce and Catherine Opie. The book will also include Atheyand#8217;s own writings, including new pieces and hard-to-find archival texts. The publication also includes an interview with Annie Sprinkle and Fakir Musafar, conducted by Athey. The publication will be lavishly illustrated with full-colour images by photographers including Catherine Opie, Manuel Vason, Elyse Regher, Slava Mogutin, Dona Ann McAdams, Bruce LaBruce, Rick Castro, Sheree Rose, Edward Colver, Jennifer Precious Finch, and others. Antony Hegarty (Antony and the Johnsons) has written a foreword to the publication.
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About the Author
Dominic Johnson is a senior lecturer in the Department of Drama at Queen Mary University of London and the author of Glorious Catastrophe: Jack Smith, Performance and Visual Culture.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Antony Hegarty
Introduction: towards a moral and just psychopathology
Dominic Johnson
Gifts of the spirit
Ron Athey
and#8216;There are many ways to say hallelujah!and#8217;
Catherine (Saalfield) Gund
and#8216;Does a bloody towel represent the ideals of the american people?and#8217;: Ron Athey and the culture wars
Dominic Johnson
Bombs away in front-line suburbia
Homi K . Bhabha
Deliverance: the and#8216;torture trilogyand#8217; in retrospect
Ron Athey
The irreplaceable bodies: resistance through ferocious fragility
Julie Tolentino
Athey-ism, collaboration, and hustler white
Bruce Labruce
Sex with Ron
Jennifer Doyle
The man and his tattoos (by the man who did them)
Alex Binnie
The milk factory on Winchester
Matthew Goulish
Flash: on photographing Ron Athey
Catherine Opie
How Ron Athey makes me feel : the political potential of upsetting art
Amelia Jones
Raised in the lord: revelations at the knee of Miss Velma
Ron Athey
Joyce : the violent disbelief of Ron Athey
Lydia Lunch
Judas cradle: invasive resonance
Juliana Snapper
Illicit transit
Adrian Heathfield
By word of mouth: Ron Atheyand#8217;s self-obliteration
Tim Etchells
The new barbarians: a declaration of poetic disobedience from the new border
Guillermo Gand#243;mez-peand#241;a
Further reading
Author biographies
Acknowledgements
Index