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July 2008
VISUAL AIDS and THE BODY announces NEW WEB EXHIBITION
image: Nancer LeMoins, Free Yr Demons, 2002
Militancy and Mourning curated by Paul Sendziuk
VISUAL AIDS WEB GALLERY at http://www.thebody.com/visualaids/web_gallery/index.html
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. This month, Paul Sendziuk curated the current on-line exhibition which features the artwork of Archive Members; Ronald Casanova, John Dugdale, Brent Nicholson Earle, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Derek Jackson, Nancer LeMoins, Edward Lightner, Elliot Linwood, Eric Rhein, Kurt Reynolds, Hugh Steers, Alberto Velasco, David Wojnarowicz and Steven H. Wolf.
From the Curator’s Statement:
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....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 which marginalizes those living with HIV/AIDS....The other artists represented force us to rethink what constitutes 'political' action...While seemingly passive in nature, such work remind us that one of the most useful functions of art is to help us mourn, to suggest that our pain is shared, that we're not alone, so that our energies might be restored and renewed for the fight ahead.
Curator:
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. www.thebody.com/visualaids/australia.
Visual AIDS was founded in 1988, to shift public opinion about--and increase awareness of--AIDS and the AIDS crisis. Visual AIDS has evolved into an arts organization with a two-pronged mission: 1) 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.; 2) 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. www.visualAIDS.org
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.
Current and past Web Gallery exhibitions can be viewed at: www.thebody.com/visualaids
***For more information contact either: ***
Visual AIDS
Amy Sadao, Executive Director
Nelson Santos, Associate Director
212.627.9855
info@visualAIDS.org
The Body
Bonnie Goldman, Editorial Director
www.TheBody.com
212.541-8500 ext. 206
BGoldman@TheBody.com
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