Sanitizing the Artist: A Dirty-Report

Ron Athey’s Self Obliteration #1 Ecstatic and #2 Rapture — part of HAU Theater’s Politics of Ecstasy festival

SPOLIER ALERT – WHICH DOUBLES AS A "MAY SPOIL YOUR MEAL" ALERT

Two plates of glass frame a tattoo-covered, but otherwise naked, man posed on his hands and knees on a table. He is wearing a long blond wig.
He breathes. The audiences watches, wanders, and waits.
He starts to brush the wig. Long strokes at first, then he reverses and teases it up into Dolly Parton-On-Steroids.
He takes the wig off. By removing the needles in his skull.
He then puts his head upside down, using the dripped blood as paint on the canvases of glass.
His muscles shake in a regular rhythm that has little to do with the half-techno, half-arty background music.
The wig comes back on and is eventually used as a full-head cast, wrapping together the wounds and his face.
Assistants wearing black latex gloves add two more glass plates, boxing him in. A white paste is added to the blood and the wig becomes a brush, covering the new plates of glass with the pink mixture, which is then brushed into the wig. This continues and his hands forget about the wig and begin to follow the lines of the tattoos on his skin.
When he has finished bringing himself to rapture, he stands on his podium and claps. The audience reciprocates.
He dismounts and the black-latexed assistants put his feet in plastic bags before he lands on the floor and walks backstage. The applause dies out and the audience slowly begins to leave. Performance time: 30 minutes. Time until the last audience member has left the theater after the performance: 15 minutes.
Outside, under the elevated subway tracks, the songs of Disney animated films filter through the air.

Our New Favorite Change!

The cover of American Vogue (note the exclamation points):

FRESH START
A NEW PRESIDENT!

which is above and to the left of:

CHANGE!
Yes, You Can
DRESS CHEAP & CHIC, BECOME A REDHEAD,
+Match Bags and Shoes






The cover of German Vogue:

UNSERE NEUEN LIEBLINGS-LOOKS (Our New Favorite Looks)

which is above:

We love fashion (We love fashion)

Overheard on Karl-Marx—part one of an ongoing series

And this one doesn’t even have to be translated….

By the city hall in Neukölln

Across the posterior of a middle-aged woman wearing what would be an American “Starter” jacket:
“CANADA: Just relax, and enjoy the Canadian experience”

Two young men dressed as hipsters would if they were allowed to be concerned about frostbite continue their conversation.

“…that’s like persistence without talent”
“And talent is just an awareness about what you’re being persistent about.”
“Yeah, I don’t believe that talent is a God-given thing.”
“…”
“I guess being persistent without talent is like just being persistent but with no real idea of what you’re doing.”
“Being persistent without talent is like banging your head against a wall; you’re more likely to get a concussion than actually make a hole through it.”

On the S-Bahn from Yorckstr. to Potsdamer Platz

A teenage girl dressed in a modified school-girl outfit with a long black coat walks heel to toe along the edge of the platform as the train approaches. She is carrying a messenger bag and an anime-decorated shopping bag. Her hair is dyed a dark hot pink and cut and glued into thick spikes—with the exception of one long thin ponytail stretching down her spine.
She boards the train and stands in the door fidgeting with her bags. A couple in their 50s who look like they dressed for the Sound of Music continue to speak earnestly in hushed tones while sneaking furtive glances at the girl. The man’s French-lieutenant mustache perfectly matches the feather pinned to the band of his female companion’s felt hat.
The girl takes one long look at the couple sitting next to her, coughs and turns to stare out the door.
A short young man is waiting at the exit to the Potsdamer Platz station. He is wearing a long black coat, and his light blond hair is cut and glued into thick spikes.