Ron Whyte's “Disemployment”: Prosthetic Performance and Theatrical Labor

Abstract

Andy Warhol was being an asshole. At least Ron Whyte thought so when the two artists crossed paths at a Soho gallery opening in the early 1970s. It's unclear what offense Warhol committed, another incident whose details have been lost to the historical record. But if Warhol had not behaved badly that fateful evening, Whyte—a queer and disabled playwright—might never have removed the “cosmetic glove” covering his “withered” left arm and hurled it at the visual artist, enabling the glove to make its own “contribution to modern art.” The famed artist, Whyte claimed, would go on to copy this assault by prosthesis in Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (1973).