In the Curator’s
Statements:
In 1987, influential
cultural critic Douglas Crimp demanded that arts institutions
and artists cease simply trying to raise money for the fight
against AIDS and start actually intervening in the epidemic.
He was frustrated by pronouncements that the elegiac and
transcendental tone of the works being made about AIDS would
be the epidemic's cultural legacy. "We don't need a
cultural renaissance," he retorted, "we need cultural
practices actively participating in the struggle against
AIDS. We don't need to transcend the epidemic; we need to
end it."
Crimp sought a more robust, political aesthetic, in which
artists would expose the techniques of representation by
which people with AIDS were either stigmatized or made invisible.
Accordingly, he championed the confrontational and explicit
graphic style of the activist collective Gran Fury, which
drew attention to the homophobia and sexism preventing effective
government action, and the provocative work of ACT UP, whose
cleverly choreographed protests ensured that its statements
made the TV news.
Crimp's manifesto sparked an ongoing debate about how artists
should respond to the crisis. Many of the artists represented
in this gallery took up his call to arms and address the
injustice, prejudices and silence that make people vulnerable
to infection and marginalize those living with HIV/AIDS.
The other artists represented force us to rethink what
constitutes "political" action. Does one have
to participate in a protest rally or storm the headquarters
of a pharmaceutical company to be political? In a society
that is uncomfortable with homosexuality, and especially
black men-who-have-sex-with-men, isn't survival -- the simple
act of slipping on a condom every time one fucks -- a political
act in itself? And what of work that represents grief and
loss? While seemingly passive in nature, such work reminds
us that one of the most useful functions of art is to help
us mourn, to suggest that our pain is shared and that we're
not alone, so that our energies might be restored and renewed
for the fight ahead.
The final two images in the gallery are by Albert Velasco,
who became a good friend during my stay in New York. His
recent health problems (including a cyst on his brain) were
eerily foreshadowed in drawings he completed over 10 years
ago. Far from being disappointed with the body, and even
when it fails, Velasco celebrates the amazing abilities
of human physiology and consciousness, reminding us to continue
living even when faced with the prospect of death.
b i o g r a p h i e s
Paul Sendziuk is a senior lecturer in
the School of History and Politics at the University of
Adelaide, Australia. His most recent book is Learning
to Trust: Australian Responses to AIDS, which was short-listed
for the 2004 Human Rights Award bestowed by Australia's
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. He spent
the first half of 2008 in New York working on a project
in collaboration with Visual AIDS titled The
Art of AIDS Prevention: Cultural Responses to HIV/AIDS in
Australia, South Africa and the United States.
Every
month, Visual AIDS invites guest curators,
drawn from both the arts and AIDS communities, to select several
works from the Frank Moore Archive Project.
Founded in 1988 by arts professionals as a response to the
effects of AIDS on the arts community and as a way of organizing
artists, arts institutions, and arts audiences towards direct
action, Visual AIDS has evolved into an arts organization
with a two-pronged mission: 1) Through the Frank Moore Archive
Project, the largest slide library of work by artists living
with HIV and the estates of artists who have died of AIDS,
Visual AIDS historicizes the contributions of visual artists
with HIV while supporting their ability to continue making
art and furthering their professional careers, 2) In collaboration
with museums, galleries, artists, schools, and AIDS service
organizations, Visual AIDS produces exhibitions, publications,
and events utilizing visual art to spread the message “AIDS
IS NOT OVER.”
The Body
is now the most frequently visited HIV/AIDS-related site on
the Web, according to the Medical Library Association and
also the most frequently visited disease-specific site on
the Web, according to Hot 100. The Body contains a rich collection
of information on topics ranging from HIV prevention, state-of-the-art
treatment issues, humor and art. An invaluable resource, The
Body is used by clinicians, patients and the general public.
Part of The Body's mission is to enable artistic expression
to reach the Web, and to join art with other resources needed
to help the public comprehend the enormity and devastation
of the AIDS pandemic and to experience its human and spiritual
dimensions. |
