Rituals and Sex and Blood: Pioneering Queer and Feminist Performance Art
Description/Abstract/Artist Statement
The performance art of Carolee Schneemann and Ron Athey are characterized by visceral presentations of sexuality underpinned by autobiography. Schneemann’s most famous performance, Interior Scroll (1975) entailed painting her nude body, then pulling a scroll from her vagina while reading a sardonic critique of conceptual art inscribed on it. Her later works included blood, film, collage, and various other materials, all of which Schneemann saw as an extension of her roots in action-painting. Athey conducts theatrical spectacles that suggest masochistic religious rites. In the 1990s, his performances incorporated the use of ritual piercing, bloodletting, and religious mythology. Diagnosed as HIV positive in 1986 in the midst of the AIDS pandemic, Athey became a central image in the 1990s Culture Wars over arts funding. Because both artists—a woman in the 1960s and an HIV positive queer man in the 1990s—represent historically marginalized groups, their artworks present their bodies as sexual and political, rather than anonymous. In the 70s, new modes of scholarship applied an affective reading to performance art. Kristine Stiles, Amelia Jones, and Karen Gonzalez Rice attributed to Schneemann and Athey’s confrontational performances a communication of the self. By contrasting themselves with the traditional, white-male-dominated performance art’s formalistic anonymity, these artists assert their identities as representatives of marginalized groups. They challenge the spectator to encounter, empathize with, and vicariously experience another identity.
Faculty Advisor/Mentor
Vittorio Colaizzi
College Affiliation
College of Arts & Letters
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Session Title
Art History 2: Identity and Society
Location
Zoom Room L
Start Date
3-20-2021 11:00 AM
End Date
3-20-2021 11:55 AM
Rituals and Sex and Blood: Pioneering Queer and Feminist Performance Art
Zoom Room L
The performance art of Carolee Schneemann and Ron Athey are characterized by visceral presentations of sexuality underpinned by autobiography. Schneemann’s most famous performance, Interior Scroll (1975) entailed painting her nude body, then pulling a scroll from her vagina while reading a sardonic critique of conceptual art inscribed on it. Her later works included blood, film, collage, and various other materials, all of which Schneemann saw as an extension of her roots in action-painting. Athey conducts theatrical spectacles that suggest masochistic religious rites. In the 1990s, his performances incorporated the use of ritual piercing, bloodletting, and religious mythology. Diagnosed as HIV positive in 1986 in the midst of the AIDS pandemic, Athey became a central image in the 1990s Culture Wars over arts funding. Because both artists—a woman in the 1960s and an HIV positive queer man in the 1990s—represent historically marginalized groups, their artworks present their bodies as sexual and political, rather than anonymous. In the 70s, new modes of scholarship applied an affective reading to performance art. Kristine Stiles, Amelia Jones, and Karen Gonzalez Rice attributed to Schneemann and Athey’s confrontational performances a communication of the self. By contrasting themselves with the traditional, white-male-dominated performance art’s formalistic anonymity, these artists assert their identities as representatives of marginalized groups. They challenge the spectator to encounter, empathize with, and vicariously experience another identity.