Ron Athey

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Domasan: Evening With a New Ropemaster

Ron Athey
“The Bondage Show” is an exhibit billed as photography by “three generations of bondage masters.” Not your usual fare, this trio spans the range from tortured rough trade to guilded deity. The live events around the show are significant, opening last week with a performative lecture by the seminal Modern......

Blue Sky, White Heron

Ron Athey
I always start my ride from the bottom end of the L.A. River bike path, with its metal heron cutouts, entering the narrow gate that dead-ends on Crystal Street. Landmarks plague me with memories on the way in: bad early-’80s drug deals in the parking lot of Rick’s Drive In......

WeHo Voices

Ron Athey
Photo by Larry Hirshowitz The Hardware Man In an era when Home Depot has driven many small hardware stores out of business, Koontz Hardware, in business in West Hollywood since 1938, is still successful. The store specializes in exotic and hard-to-find items. There are lots of housewares, too. Herb Dempsey,......

Carol McDowell: Movement Leader

Ron Athey
Photo by Alyssa Nicol "I’VE NOTICED A DISPARATE GROUP of young artists working in between genres from the art schools around L.A. who do not have a place to meet and interact in the process of performing their art," says Carol McDowell, a dance-video artist who’s recently begun arranging collaborations......
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Getting the Skin-ny

Ron Athey
Photos by Jenafer Gillingham “There’s a lot of strippers in L.A. — it’s a totally different backstage scene than at rock shows in New York,” says designer Ligia Morris, whose ensembles in leather, fabric and hand-painted silks have been sought after by rappers and rockers alike for the past 14......

3 Stylish Performance Moments, Plus an Intervention

Ron Athey
Marisa Carnesky in Jewess Tattooess at UCLA: Walking on a forward-tilting stage, a nude Carnesky cloaked herself in an ultra-Orthodox-chic ’40s coat with matching hat, and stepped into a pair of pumps. Closed-toe shoes that happened to be preloaded with blood capsules. Taking slow steps, she never looked down as......

Mariel Carranza, Endurance Test

Ron Athey
Photo by Wild Don Lewis As part of her installation “Corners,” Mariel Carranza began a nine-day fast last Friday. But this is art, not a David Blaine publicity stunt. She’s restructuring the gallery at Crazy Space (in the 18th Street Arts Complex, where she’ll be on view from noon until......

William Jones, Charming Man

Ron Athey
Photo by Wild Don Lewis Call it “Moz Angeles.” SoCal has more Morrissey devotees per square foot than any place on Earth. And the vast majority are Latino. For the last two years, filmmaker William Jones has been documenting, through black-and-white photography, this subculture within a subculture. Jones, himself a......

Speak, Memory

Ron Athey
Photo by Steven A. Gunther DUMB TYPE at Redcat Theater, October 28 Located in the backside of Disney Concert Hall, the Redcat is a state-of-the-art, high-ceilinged, black-walled theater dedicated to showing experimental work. The building was christened by Dumb Type, the Kyoto-based collective which, for its L.A. debut, presented MemoRandum......
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Tat’s Incredible

Ron Athey
Photos by Larry Hirshowitz The 12th annual Inkslingers Ball attracted tattoo enthusiasts to the Hollywood Palladium from L.A. County and beyond for three days of tattooing and contests. The customary chaos prevailed: The noise of tattoo guns grinding, AC/DC blasting, an annoying MC alternately hosting the tattoo contests and chucking......