Gifts of the Spirit in Manchester

2 Gyrlz Performative Arts, in collaboration with Glorious Trauma and the Centre for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacies, is proud to present the Northern debut of “Gifts of the Spirit: Automatic Writing”


A performance installation conceived, scored and directed by Ron Athey with automatic composition and music performance by Othon Mataragas. They will be accompanied by 16 automatic writers, a piano, 6 typists, 4 editors, 1 reader, and a glossolalia chorus. The performance will take place in the historic Whitworth Hall on the University of Manchester campus on Monday June 27th at 7:00pm. 


For directions and campus map, please visit www.manchester.ac.uk. Admission is free, but as space is limited, you must reserve a ticket through accessing: http://giftsofthespirit.eventbrite.com/

This event is presented in conjunction with:

The Queer Theory of the Avant-Garde
Organised by the Centre for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacies


27th and 28th June 2011
Kanaris Lecture Theatre, Manchester Museum

Registration for the conference: £15 (including refreshments)
email Joanna.Pawlik@manchester.ac.uk to register.


Gifts of the Spirit was originally devised during an AiR Project Residency at Queen Mary, University of London
www.airproject.qmul.ac.uk

Self Obliteration in Ljubljana

On the 31st of March 2011 Ron Athey will be bringing his critically acclaimed solo piece, Self Obliteration  I & II to Ljubljana, Slovenia with Galerija Kapelica.

The piece has previously been presented in Berlin, Los Angeles, Glasgow and London.

'For those of us who watch – or bear witness, as it so often feels in Athey's performances – it is as if he is trying to obliterate our vision of him with his own bodily fluids...He is perfectly still, like an ancient battered rock: immense, blind and immovable.' - Lyn Garnder, Guardian (UK)


31st March 2011 - 9pm
T5 Project Space
Tobacna 5
Ljubljana


http://www.k6-4.org/?p=47 - Galerija Kapelica website. (Slovenian)

Ron Athey and Kira O'Reilly in conversation this Friday

Gifts of the Spirit Part 1: Automatic Writing
Photograph by Bobby Whittaker

Untitled (syncopations for more bodies)
Photograph by John Cartwright

This friday, Ron Athey and Kira O'Reilly will be in conversation, discussing their most recent work and experiences as Outside AiR headliners. The talk will be followed by a Q&A session and a wine reception, and is free of charge.

Friday 17th December 2010, 6.30pm

Queen Mary University of London

Arts Lecture Theatre

Arts Building

Mile End Road

E1 4NS

London

For more info on the project:

http://www.airproject.qmul.ac.uk/

Ron Athey in 2011 - Performances, Projects & Events

Self Obliteration Parts I & II in Barcelona, Spain and Ljubljana, Slovenia

Gifts of the Spirit Part 1: Automatic Writing in Manchester, UK

Resonate/Obliterate London

and

www.ronathey.com

Ron Athey and Kira O'Reilly: Syncopations and Automatic Writing

17th December 2010

Ron Athey and Kira O'Reilly will present illustrated lectures about their current work, focusing on their recent performances in Outside AiR at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).

Athey and O'Reilly will also be in conversation together, followed by a Q&A with the audience and a wine reception with the artists.

Both artists presented performances as part of their AiR Project residencies in the Department of Drama at QMUL in 2010. Air Project is co-organised by Dominic Johnson and Lois Weaver, and supported by Arts Council England, East End Collaborations, Live Art Development Agency, Westfield Trust, LCACE and QMI Prospects Fund.

For more info on the project: http://www.airproject.qmul.ac.uk/

The event is FREE and all are welcome. No booking required.

BIOGRAPHIES

Ron Athey has been a practicing artist since the early 1980s. In Athey's touring series such as The Torture Trilogy (1993-95) and Incorruptible Flesh (1997-2008), physical actions stand in as decoys for events too final to repeat: a deep piercing is the arrow in St. Sebastian’s liver, a scalpel cut becomes Philoctetes’ foul gash, a wound that never heals.

Kira O’Reilly is a UK based artist; her practice, both wilfully interdisciplinary and entirely undisciplined, stems from a visual art background; it employs performance, biotechnical practices and writing with which to consider speculative reconfigurations around the body. She is currently AHRC Creative Fellow in QMUL Drama.


17th December 2010 6.30pm


Queen Mary University of London

Arts Lecture Theatre, Arts Building

Mile End Road

E1 4NS

London

United Kingdom

Gifts of the Spirit Part 1: Automatic Writing (A Study and A Score)

Ron Athey's performance installation at Outside AiR. A cast of 26 generate ecstatic writing around the unfinished text of Athey's memoir, Gifts of the Spirit.

All photographs by Bobby Whittaker.

Outside AiR - Ron Athey's New Performance

Ron Athey's new performance installation Gifts of the Spirit Part 1: Automatic Writing (A Study and A Score) at Outside AiR has only a limited number of places left for both nights. Book now to avoid disappointment!


Kira O'Reilly 8-9 November 7.30pm £10 (£8)
Ron Athey 11-12 November 7.30pm £10 (£8)

To reserve tickets or for more information contact Rose Sharp r.sharp@qmul.ac.uk 020 7882 5196