Because I have never investigated the arena of performance art I, especially when any form of self-harming or violence is involved, so I felt it was important to look other artists who practised their art within this field, so I have looked at a variety of male artists who use performance art as the media within which they practice. The work of Ron Athey (b.1961) interested me because I believe he is completely in contrast with Franco B and yet there are similarites between the two artists.
His performance does bear witness to a disturbed childhood, because he was raised by a family of religious fanatics to think he was the reincarnated of Jesus.
He was brought up to be a fundamentalist minister from a very early age, and his mother was a schizophrenic, and his aunt also suffered from mental illness, the forced extreme Pentecostal upbringing was extremely damaging and by the time he was seventeen Athey was a heroin addict. He did escape from his family and managed to kick the heroin addiction.
When looking at his work it refers mainly to the church and religious themes of Martyrs and Saints and Deliverance, St. Sebastian, is a character that he often refers to. All these works are portrayed with the context of sadomasicism. In most of Athey's performances his body is used to for violence, being cut, slashed and pierced. They are extreme p
erformances in a masochistic format, his body becomes the site of ritualistic and mythical representation, his work is theatrical, and the viewer is part of an audience, there does not seem to be emotional involvement between the viewer more a spectators stance.
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