The Eleusinian Projector: Screening & Discussion with Ron Athey

In the new BLOC cinema, LADA and QMUL present a discussion between Ron Athey and long-time friend and collaborator, Dominic Johnson. The two will screen and discuss video works that can be categorised as Mythological Post-Porn. Post-porn is initially defined in Athey’s 1995 Deliverance, wherein he is penetrated on a 9-minute double-dildo ride, while reading an almost-comical text about virtue grandstanding and HIV reinfection. Ron Athey followed this work with the solo performances Solar Anus and Self Obliteration, and is currently working with the myths of Pasiphae, Daedalus, and Asclepius.

All this and more will be discussed with Dominic Johnson, who edited the monograph on Athey’s work Pleading in the Blood (published by Intellect and Live Art Development Agency in 2013), and collaborated with him for the performance Incorruptible Flesh: Perpetual Wound (2017) at the Chelsea Theatre.

Screening programme

I. Entering the Forest of Acephale, 2018
Video by Graham Kolbeins, jonjohn version filmed at Mustache
II. Pasiphäe, Witch Queen of Crete: A Gloryhole Origin Story, 2021
Video by Tyler Hubby, filmed at PRS, co-directed with Hermes Pittakos
III. The Hierophant, 2023
Video by Ivan Neri, filmed in Athens, movement direction by Federica Dauri

Join us from 3.30pm for a drinks reception. The screening will begin at 4.00pm, and will be followed by another short reception.

Documentation of Ron Athey’s performances, including Deliverance (1995) and Incorruptible Flesh: Perpetual Wound (2017), is available in LADA’s Study Room.