RON ATHEY

I saw this a while ago now but i feel i have to write about it.

I have worked in the CCA for maybe 5 years now and had always heard of 'the guy who was HIV positive that sat on a pyramid and bled all over the place.' A piece of live performance art i never thought i'd like to see but curiosity killed the cat when i heard he was performing again at this years new territories.

He had been in all week and i served him coffee, a lovely chap.

Rumours were that he would be cutting himself, fisting himself and then lying down and rubbing rock salt on his open wounds.

As an avid fan of Japanese horror and gore and thinking nothing more of watching people on film do the most fucked up things to one another i decided to test my boundaries and see how i'd react to it being peformed live infront of me. Real Blood, a real person.

The noise on the clip i have provided will haunt me for years.

The show started off to look quite beautiful. His naked body (which could easily have been a hers)decorated in tattoos, the thick long blonde wig attached to his head covering his face he started to swing it in time with the hypnotic noise, he picked up a brush and started brushing it vigoursly, caressing every knot out of it so it was barbie doll smooth. Things started to get freaky when he started manically backcombing it to undo his previous effort at which point he flicked the wig back and started unhooking the hooks one by one. Blood started spurting out of his scalp onto the glass, people in the audience gasped and shouted in outrage. 'Call and ambulance', 'this is disgusting, he needs help' At this point i thought i would leave but i was weirdly hypnotised. A woman infront of me collapsed. I thought the show would be stopped at this point but it carried on. Half the audience had left in disgust. I had ringing in my ears so I went outside for a cigarette and to ask myself if i really wanted to see more. I met someone who had been working with him and had seen this performance before. His reaction was somewhat discouraging as he was worried about the amount of blood he was losing. 'He has hit an artery' 'Too much blood' He assured me he had his partner there and if things got bad he would stop the show. Shaking, we both returned to the performance. I had missed him fisting himself. (thankfully) and he was now lying flat. Still. Covered in blood. open wounds.

I looked up onto the lighting rig. Kenny( the tech for the night!) looked peaky, armed with a bucket of salt ready to pour on his on his naked lacerated body. He didnt flinch as the salt poured down like a ray of light into his soul. Just like in the movie ghost when a patrick swayze's life is taken by 'him' from above.

He had lost too much blood and the show was cut short.

The audience was silent. Then after a long pause there was rapturous applause. I started to clap too. I felt like i was having an outer body experience at this point. Like i wasn't in the room.

With the amount of blood i witnessed i imagined an ambulance to be outside the building waiting to give a blood transfusion. But nothing.

I went through to see my friends who were dj'ing. I couldn't really speak. I was in shock.

I had to go to meet other friends in the ivy and my way out the door i bumped into the last person i thought i would ever see again, Mr Ron Athey, Smoking a cigarette, laughing and acting completely normal. I almost felt angry at his normality after practically fucking me up for my evening ahead.

Glad he was safe though.

An expierence i am glad i experienced. Never again.