Pleading in the Blood: The Art and Performances of Ron Athey (Intellect Live)

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, S&M 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 Athey’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. “__Pleading in the Blood__ offers a remarkable and enduring contribution to literatures on performance and contemporary art. . . . The potency of myth in Ron Athey’s work is the problem tackled by this formidable new book.” —__Contemporary Theatre Review__

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 Athey’s own writings, commissioned essays by maverick artists and leading academics and full-colour images of Athey’s art and performances since the early 1980s. The diverse range of artistic and critical contributors to the book reflects Athey’s creative and cultural impact, among them musician Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons who contributed a foreword.

The tale of two men's experiences with a native Indian tribe in the Brazilian rain forest. One is an American mercenary hired to drive the Niaruna Indians off their land, who joins forces with them instead. The other is a missionary sent to convert the natives to Christianity