HUMA 024 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Ron Athey
Document Summary
First, the theory does not provide us enough information to be able to distinguish artworks from ritual objects that are not artworks or at least are not obviously artworks. This is made clear by the example of the catholic mass. The bread and wine employed in the mass are certainly ritual objects, but they are not artworks in any obvious sense (unlike the sculptures employed in dogon rituals). Either we need to identify differentiae or else somehow establish the fact that the bread and wine of the mass actually are artworks after all. Second, the theory does not appear to account adequately for all artworks. Freeland discusses the performance artist ron athey in this connection. Athey is a heavily tattooed, hiv-positive extreme performance artist who literally cuts himself and blood-lets during his performances. On one occasion, he sprayed his audience with blood.
