Pleading in the Blood: The Art and Performances of Ron Athey

Pleading in the Blood: The Art and Performances of Ron Athey

This summer the first book devoted to the seminal and influential performance artist Ron Athey will be published by Intellect Live. 

Edited by Dominic Johnson, Pleading in the Blood includes three newly commissioned essays on different aspects of Athey’s work by Adrian Heathfield, Amelia Jones, and Dominic Johnson. These scholarly essays are complemented by shorter texts by Homi K. Bhabha, Jennifer Doyle, Tim Etchells, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Matthew Goulish, Lydia Lunch, Juliana Snapper, Julie Tolentino, Alex Binnie, Catherin (Saalfield) Gund, Bruce LaBruce and Catherine Opie. The book will also include Athey’s own writings, including new pieces and hard-to-find archival texts

Pleading in the Blood is lavishly illustrated with full-colour images by photographers including Catherine Opie, Manuel Vason, Elyse Regher, Slava Mogutin, Dona Ann McAdams, Bruce LaBruce, Rick Castro, Sheree Rose, Edward Colver, Jennifer Precious Finch, and others. Antony Hegarty (Antony and the Johnsons) has written a foreword to the publication.

Front cover image courtesy of Regis Hertrich, from Athey’s Solar Anus at The Hayward Gallery, London. Curated by Lee Adams for the Undercover Surrealism exhibition (2006).

Intellect Live is a new collaboration between Intellect Books and the Live Art Development Agency dedicated to influential artists working at the edges of performance.

http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/