Ron Athey

Ron Athey (born December 16, 1961) is an American performance artist associated with body art and with extreme performance art.

He has performed in the U.S. and internationally (especially in the UK and Europe).

Athey's work explores challenging subjects like the relationships between desire, sexuality and traumatic experience.

Many of his works include aspects of S&M in order to confront preconceived ideas about the body in relation to masculinity and religious iconography.

Ron Athey's earliest work dates back to collaborations with Rozz Williams during the early 1980s.

Athey and Williams performed as Premature Ejaculation, staging actions in clubs and galleries and producing experimental recordings and performances for camera.

Their work together was photographed by Karen Filter and published in the punk magazine No Mag in 1982.

The practice for which he is most known grows from performances developed for club contexts in Los Angeles, such as Club Fuck! and Sin-a-matic.

Through the 1990s and 2000s, Athey was a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers including Infected Faggot Perspectives, Honcho and the L.A. Weekly.

In 1992, he staged his first major ensemble performance, Martyrs & Saints.

This is the first of what the artist calls his Torture Trilogy.

It was followed by 4 Scenes in a Harsh Life (1993-1996) and Deliverance (1995).

These works were performed in the U.S., Mexico and in Europe.

The artist Catherine Opie, whose connections to Athey originate in Los Angeles's queer club/underground scene, photographed the artist in 1994 as a part of her Portraits series.

Athey was the art-director for Porno for Pyros's video for Sadness (1994, remade as A Little Sadness in 2005); including performances by Athey and his company, the video adapts images and looks from his performance Four Scenes in a Harsh Life, including the contentious Human Printing Press scene, in which Athey cuts symbols on the back of company member Divinity Fudge (aka Darryl Carlton).

David Bowie appropriated (without permission) aspects of Athey's performances in the video for The Hearts Filthy Lesson (1995), in which porn performer Bud Hole stages signature piercing actions, and Bowie invoked Athey as an influence for his album 1. Outside (1995), including in the cover notes.

His collaborative performances include the Incorruptible Flesh series, (1996-2013), commenced in collaboration with the late Chicago-based performance artist Lawrence Steger and continued in solo and collaborative installments.

Athey (and his former home in Silver Lake Hills) makes a notable appearance as a macabre, cross-dressing mortician in Rick Castro and Bruce LaBruce's 1996 film Hustler White.

His work has also been referenced by mainstream artists.

In 1998, he appeared in Sex/Life in L.A. Jochen Hick's adult documentary about the sex lives of the guys who make L.A. adult movies.

His work has expanded into solo performances, collaborations, and into experimental theatre and opera.

Solo performances include Solar Anus (1999), Self-Obliteration solos (2008-2011), a series of performances inspired by St. Sebastian (e.g. Sebastian Suspended, 1999; Sebastiane, 2014).

In 1999, the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS invited Opie to produce a series of works honoring of Ron Athey's work.

Opie and Athey collaborated to produce thirteen images from his performance practice, using the world's largest Polaroid camera.

This series is widely exhibited, including in exhibitions exploring the relationship between photography and performance.

In 2000 and 2001, he collaborated with Vaginal Davis on a performance-centered queer club night, G.I.M.P. Un-Ltd.

These events were staged at a bar in Silver Lake (Zen Sushi) and featured performances by Athey and Davis, as well as John Fleck, Osseus Labyrint, Los Superelegantes, and Kembra Pfahler and The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black.

In 2001 and 2002, Athey and Vaginal Davis curated an eighteen-hour performance festival as a part of Outfest, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Festival.

Staged under the festival's "Platinum" program, these events featured work by a range of artists, including Bruce LaBruce, Slava Mogutin, Brendan Mullen, JD Samson, Selene Luna, Mehmet Sander, and Glen Meadmore.

Joyce (2002) is an experimental theatre work which uses projection and live performance to offer a portrait of the women who defined the artist's childhood.

He and the artist Juliana Snapper developed Judas Cradle (2004-2005), an experimental opera.

Athey has collaborated with others (notably Lee Adams) on a curatorial project inspired by the writings of Georges Bataille, Visions of Excess (Birmingham, 2005 and 2008; Ljubljana, 2004; London, 2009).

These performance programs have featured such artists such as Franko B, Julie Tolentino, Zackary Drucker, Nicole Blackman, Marisa Carnesky and Kira O'Reilly.

In 2010 he initiated a series of works investigating the rituals of spiritualism and Pentecostalism, Gifts of the Spirit.

Athey has a significant curatorial and programming practice.

His most recent performances, such as Incorruptible Flesh (Messianic Remains) (2013) expand on aspects that define his earlier ensemble and collaborative work.

The first book dedicated to Athey and his work, Pleading in the Blood: The Art and Performance of Ron Athey edited by Dominic Johnson, was published in 2013 by the Live Art Development Agency and Intellect.

He occasionally teaches performance (most recently, at CalArts during the 2015–2016 academic year).

He currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

Rick Castro interviewed and photographed Athey for AnotherMan UK, in November 2018.