Hallelujah!

For nearly 20 years, Ron Athey has been on the cutting edge of performance art. Literally. You may have even heard of him: He's the one who became a whipping boy for groups seeking to slash Federal funding of the National Endowment of the Arts when it was reported that spectators at an Athey performance were drizzled with HIV-infected hemoglobin dripping from blood-soaked paper towels strung above the audience's heads (a whopping $150 worth of NEA money went toward the performance). The report wasn't entirely accurate, but reflects the mix of outrage, disgust and morbid fascination that Athey's work inspires. Some, however, find his work -- in which his own multipl...