While most young artists are content to scribble some harebrained combo of skulls, antlers, and flowers on a piece of notebook paper and call it a day, scene vets like Ron Athey are laying around in Soho galleries in mortal agony.
We just went to see Athey's recent "endurance performance" at Artists Space and holy fuck was it intense. He was lying there, using a scaffold as a bed, with fishhooks holding his eyelids open. Something (still don't know what) had been done to his dick and balls because they were swollen up into one sweltering mass. It looked like a softball coated in pale pink lip gloss. Then, for a little piece de resistance, he had a baseball bat shoved up his ass! We were invited to grab some rubber gloves from the pile on a nearby table, slather our hands with the industrial-sized tub of Vaseline, and touch him, but our photographer could barely get close enough to take this pic without puking.So what would Vice's one-word review of Athey's lil spectacle be? Hmm… how about FUCKINGAMAZINGYESWELOVEIT. I mean, come on. What are you going to talk about longer after seeing it: a hazy snapshot photo of some dude's girlfriend dancing in the snow, yet another Ray Pettibon ripoff drawing, or a real, live, trembling, suffering lunatic? We know our answer. We love you, Ron Athey!
The only bummer part was that the rest of the crowd was so serious about it. We should have all been laughing and high-fiving over his body, but everyone stood around and gazed at Athey all solemnly. Yawn!PS: (I guess Artforum didn't like it, but you can still see more pictures here.)
We just went to see Athey's recent "endurance performance" at Artists Space and holy fuck was it intense. He was lying there, using a scaffold as a bed, with fishhooks holding his eyelids open. Something (still don't know what) had been done to his dick and balls because they were swollen up into one sweltering mass. It looked like a softball coated in pale pink lip gloss. Then, for a little piece de resistance, he had a baseball bat shoved up his ass! We were invited to grab some rubber gloves from the pile on a nearby table, slather our hands with the industrial-sized tub of Vaseline, and touch him, but our photographer could barely get close enough to take this pic without puking.So what would Vice's one-word review of Athey's lil spectacle be? Hmm… how about FUCKINGAMAZINGYESWELOVEIT. I mean, come on. What are you going to talk about longer after seeing it: a hazy snapshot photo of some dude's girlfriend dancing in the snow, yet another Ray Pettibon ripoff drawing, or a real, live, trembling, suffering lunatic? We know our answer. We love you, Ron Athey!
The only bummer part was that the rest of the crowd was so serious about it. We should have all been laughing and high-fiving over his body, but everyone stood around and gazed at Athey all solemnly. Yawn!PS: (I guess Artforum didn't like it, but you can still see more pictures here.)