Ron Athey

Reminiscent of Sunset Boulevard, the action is transposed from the silver screen's old backlots to contemporary male prostitution and the pornographic industry.

Prostrate probing interviews! Live action murder! Naked people! Tired death-rockers! And more! Much more!!

Based off a homophobic Bataille essay — L’Anus Solaire (1931) — which draws the erect penis as the sun, and the anus as the nighttime, attracted to each other but unable to exist together, Ron Athey’s performance work aims to queer Bataille’s theory. After pinning his face and head into a crown, Athey proceeds to fuck himself with a dildo attached to a pair of high heels, eventually releasing a string of pearls from his anus.

Athey and Pittakos were inspired by the inclusion of a short Pasiphäe video they made for their multimedia performance Acephalous Monster. Wanting to expand on the idea in a short film that could stand alone, but also start thinking about how it could fit in a new work, The Asclepeion. And to expand on the concept of possession, compulsion, abjection, realization.. this is archetype work. Hermes interpretation of the enchanted womb of a cow, this myth is truly the earliest reference of a glory hole being used to deceive and coerce, in this case, the seed of Poseidan’s bull.

In this documentary Kerkhof takes the viewer into a bizarre underworld, the sub-culture of blood art and body piercing performance art. Kerkhof's camera registered a performance by the American blood artist Ron Athey which took place during the FREAK ZONE festival in Lille, France in May 1997. The camerawork is so freaky one would almost suspect it is under the influence of heroin. The film includes interviews with Athey as well as shocking live fragments wherein Athey works his face over with injection needles. The crazy, maniacal clamour of the HIV positive priest/performer gives us insights into the motives and goals of this group of masochistic performance artists. Somebody who entertains his audience by cutting and stabbing himself; is this art? Who can say? What is beyond question is that Kerkhof's masterful use of the camera and editing not only obscures the images but also the boundary between art and unbearable filth.

But happily Kerkhof the uncompromising iconoclast is back. With his newest film RON ATHEY: IT’S SCRIPTED (the original title RON ATHEY: SO MANY WAYS TO SAY HALLELUJAH had to be changed because there is already a 2 hour documentary in production under this title) he has delivered a convincing artistic achievement. Those without strong stomachs will probably find the overwhelming amount of injection needles and razor blades a bit too much, but the film is so cleverly constructed that one cannot look away.

Celebrating the life and career of dancer, performer, choreographer, LGBTQ+ and publicly HIV-positive activist Patrick Scully, whose Patrick’s Cabaret was a South Minneapolis fixture for decades. His work in MN, New York and Berlin, expresses his passion for life, and touches on subjects that are often controversial and profound.

Documentary exploring Ron Athey’s life and career as a queer HIV-positive body modification and performance artist, including several of Athey’s internationally staged works from the late 1990s.