Career
He has performed in the United States. and internationally (especially in the United Kingdom and Europe). Athey"s work explores challenging subjects like the relationships between desire, sexuality and traumatic experience. Athey has been a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers including Honcho and the Los Angeles Weekly, and occasionally teaches performance studies.
He currently lives in England, in the London area.
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. lieutenant includes writing about his work by major artists including Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Antony Hegarty, Robert Wilson, Lydia Lunch and Bruce LaBruce, and essays by scholars such as Amelia Jones, Jennifer Doyle, Homi K. Bhabha and others
In 1994 Athey became the subject of controversy concerning the use of federal funds to support art work with visible gay content. On March 5, during a performance of an excerpt from Four Scenes in a Harsh Life sponsored by the Walker Art Center and staged at Patrick"s Cabaret in Minneapolis, Athey made cuts in co-performer Darryl Carlton"s (stage name Divinity Fudge) back, placed strips of absorbent paper towel on the cuts and then, using a pulley, hoisted the blood-stained cloths into the air.
Local art critic/reporter Mary Abbe (who had not witnessed the performance) wrote a news account of public health complaints concerning the performance which appeared on the front page of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
The report quoted the Walker"s director Kathy Halbreich and performing arts director John Killacky, audience members, and Minnesota state health officials. The supervisor of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome epidemiology unit in Minnesota"s state health department said that "it did not appear that audience members were endangered." In response to the health complaints, a health department staff member contacted the Walker and was given a memo outlining medical safety precautions that it had taken. That story was picked up by the Associated Press and quickly made national headlines.
The then-widespread anxiety about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome combined with a shocked reaction from those unfamiliar with South&M-related art: some critics and lawmakers, including Jesse Helms, falsely described his performances as exposing audience members to Human Immunodeficiency Virus-infected blood.
Although this 1994 performance was supported only indirectly (via the Walker Center) by $150 from the National Endowment for the Arts, Athey"s name was frequently invoked in criticism of the National Education Association. Athey was not alone in this: performance artists Tim Miller, John Fleck, Karen Finley and Holly Hughes would later become the National Education Association Four as they fought a case regarding funding for their work before the Supreme Court. Unlike these other artists, Athey has never applied for federal funds to support his work.
Nevertheless the controversy over this incident continues to shape public perception of his work.