How do you represent the worst disease of our time through art? That's the central question of a first-of-a-kind exhibition in New York looking at the AIDS epidemic.
Expressing rage and anguish but also hope, the exhibition aims to raise awareness of a disease greatly changed but still present in today's society.
Nick Harper reports from New York.
IN: "125 pieces of..."
OUT: SOC
DUR: 2:44
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TAKE VO
125 pieces of art spanning 35 years. The length of the AIDS epidemic.
This is the work of rage, anguish and loss.
Often created by artists who are HIV positive, or who went on to die as a result of AIDS.
TAKE VO
Born in 1986 Pacifico Silano is one of the youngest artists here. He was inspired by his uncle who died of AIDS in 1989.
TAKE SOT - Pacifico Silano, Artist
"After he passed away it was as if he had never existed in my family. And I was left with these lingering questions of who was my uncle, why was he forgotten and what did I have in common with him. So he really was the entry point for me to find a way to find this neglected forgotten history."
TAKE VO
His work, 'Pages of a Bluebook Magazine' shows just the faces of 100 male models from a pornographic magazine. Staring out, they challenge the viewer to remember them.
TAKE VO
Indeed, so much of the exhibition documents that sense of loss.
Like this workout bench covering from a San Francisco gay gym. A Turin shroud for the AIDS generation.
TAKE VO
Other works turn the artist into the subject, to show the full impact of AIDS. As the curator of the Bronx Museum Sergio Bessa explains.
TAKE SOT - Sergio Bessa, Curator, Bronx Museum
"He was a very very promising photographer back then. And these are probably some of the last photographs that he did of himself and it's documenting himself in the hospital."
TAKE VO
Much has changed in the years since the disease was first discovered. Drugs have improved, life expectancies increased. And subsequently, people have forgotten.
TAKE SOT - Sergio Bessa, Curator, Bronx Museum
"Anyone who was around in the 80s and remembers how scary and hopeless so many people felt in the early days of the epidemic, compared to now you can maybe see that young people don't really have a measure of how impactful that was."
TAKE VO
The subject of stigma is also covered. Like with this textbook dispelling popular myths about transmission. A reminder that this virus was once scarily misunderstood.
TAKE VO
With over 125 works of art this exhibition provides a huge array of artistic responses to the AIDS epidemic. In many of the works of arts you can see the artists grappling with the disease, often within their own lives. It's hoped therefore that people who come to the exhibition will challenged to think differently about AIDS, both personally and artistically.
SOC
Expressing rage and anguish but also hope, the exhibition aims to raise awareness of a disease greatly changed but still present in today's society.
Nick Harper reports from New York.
IN: "125 pieces of..."
OUT: SOC
DUR: 2:44
AIR: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0819aidsarts-nh-air.mp3
ARN: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0819aidsarts-nh-arn.mp3
FM4: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0819aidsarts-nh-fm4.mp3
GENERIC: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0819aidsarts-nh-gen.mp3
ICRT: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0819aidsarts-nh-icrt.mp3
NIGERIA: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0819aidsarts-nh-von.mp3
938LIVE: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0819aidsarts-nh-938.mp3
RNZ: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0819aidsarts-nh-rnz.mp3
VATICAN: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0819aidsarts-nh-vat.mp3
ZIZ: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0819aidsarts-nh-ziz.mp3
TAKE VO
125 pieces of art spanning 35 years. The length of the AIDS epidemic.
This is the work of rage, anguish and loss.
Often created by artists who are HIV positive, or who went on to die as a result of AIDS.
TAKE VO
Born in 1986 Pacifico Silano is one of the youngest artists here. He was inspired by his uncle who died of AIDS in 1989.
TAKE SOT - Pacifico Silano, Artist
"After he passed away it was as if he had never existed in my family. And I was left with these lingering questions of who was my uncle, why was he forgotten and what did I have in common with him. So he really was the entry point for me to find a way to find this neglected forgotten history."
TAKE VO
His work, 'Pages of a Bluebook Magazine' shows just the faces of 100 male models from a pornographic magazine. Staring out, they challenge the viewer to remember them.
TAKE VO
Indeed, so much of the exhibition documents that sense of loss.
Like this workout bench covering from a San Francisco gay gym. A Turin shroud for the AIDS generation.
TAKE VO
Other works turn the artist into the subject, to show the full impact of AIDS. As the curator of the Bronx Museum Sergio Bessa explains.
TAKE SOT - Sergio Bessa, Curator, Bronx Museum
"He was a very very promising photographer back then. And these are probably some of the last photographs that he did of himself and it's documenting himself in the hospital."
TAKE VO
Much has changed in the years since the disease was first discovered. Drugs have improved, life expectancies increased. And subsequently, people have forgotten.
TAKE SOT - Sergio Bessa, Curator, Bronx Museum
"Anyone who was around in the 80s and remembers how scary and hopeless so many people felt in the early days of the epidemic, compared to now you can maybe see that young people don't really have a measure of how impactful that was."
TAKE VO
The subject of stigma is also covered. Like with this textbook dispelling popular myths about transmission. A reminder that this virus was once scarily misunderstood.
TAKE VO
With over 125 works of art this exhibition provides a huge array of artistic responses to the AIDS epidemic. In many of the works of arts you can see the artists grappling with the disease, often within their own lives. It's hoped therefore that people who come to the exhibition will challenged to think differently about AIDS, both personally and artistically.
SOC