VisualAIDS

Protest March against Smithsonian Censorship

Artistic Action Planned for Thurs., Dec. 2: A silent protest march from Transformer gallery to the National Portrait Gallery and then on to Congress.

In early response to the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution's censoring of David Wojnarowicz's 1987 video work A Fire in My Belly, from the current Hide/Seek exhibition, Transformer initiated a screening of the work in our storefront project space at 1404 P Street, NW, Washington, DC. The work currently on view is an approximately four minute excerpt of the original thirty-minute work in progress by the artist.

"As a response to the censorship by the Smithsonian of Wojnarowicz's work, and in honor of World AIDS Day & Day With(out) Art, the many alternative art spaces, visual arts organizations, artists, and activists around the world that have paved the path for freedom of expression & the existence of experimental arts venues like Transformer, we feel it is our job to champion all artists' creative expression without constraints, and to continue the important dialogue Wojnarowicz's work generates about aggression, hunger, community, love, loss, as well as religion" states Victoria Reis, co-Founder, Executive & Artistic Director of Transformer.

Reis continues, "We have received overwhelmingly positive response to our actions from individuals and arts leaders all over the country who are shocked by the National Portrait Gallery's and the Smithsonian Institution's decision to censor this work from the Hide/Seek exhibition, and who are saddened by the bullying of lawmakers turning back the clock and once again using the threat of cutting arts funding as a scare tactic that is part of an anti-art, anti-intellectual, and anti-gay agenda. We are glad to see mobilizing of other screenings being organized in other cities."

Transformer will soon be showing the entire thirty-minute Wojnarowicz work in progress, with unique permission of his Estate: "I give Transformer permission to show this clearly censored work, I only wish David were alive, he would tear these censors apart." -Tom Rauffenbart, Executor of the Estate of David Wojnarowicz.

Artistic Action Planned for Thursday, December 2:
A silent protest march from Transformer to the
National Portrait Gallery and then on to Congress.
Meet at Transformer at 5:30pm.
The artistic action will begin at 6pm with mouths tied.

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

In tandem with the on-going screening of Fire in My Belly, Transformer is organizing an artistic action for Thursday, December 2 in protest of the decision to censor David Wojnarowicz's video Fire in My Belly from the Hide/Seek exhibition. "We are inviting all people concerned by the actions of our law-makers, as well as the actions of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Portrait Gallery who cowered to governmental bullying, to meet at Transformer at 5:30pm Thursday 12/2 to participate in a silent walk from Transformer to the NPG. Following a visual expression of dissent in response to the censorship on the part of these organizations & our lawmakers, we will move on to the steps of Congress to further express our concern & dissent. " – James Alefantis, Transformer Board President.

Click here for additional information, or contact Transformer at [email protected] / 202-483-1102.

EXIT ART: Activism and Alternative Art

Writers with AIDS reading series at White Columns

Writers with HIV/AIDS Reading Series
Curated by Sarah Schulman of the ACT UP Oral History Project - the readings will take place at White Columns. Admission is free and on a strictly first-come basis - we suggest early arrival to guarantee seats.

Monday October 4 at 7pm:
David Halperin reads Michel Foucault
Jaime Manrique reads Reinaldo Arenas
Jim Eigo reads John Preston
John Weir reads David Feinberg
Marie Howe reads Tory Dent
Terry Rowden reads Steven Corbin
Penny Arcade reads Jack Smith

Part of: ACT UP New York: Activism, Art and the AIDS Crisis

White Columns
320 West 13th Street, NYC

Exhibition runs until October 23, 2010.

 

Through Positive Eyes

Through Positive Eyes gives photographic voice to people living with HIV in major cities around the world. It is based on the belief that HIV-positive people should pick up their own cameras and make their own artistic statements. In doing so, they create powerful tools for combating stigma, which is one of the most formidable barriers in reducing the spread of AIDS today.

Through Positive Eyes has been produced in Mexico City (August 2008), Rio de Janeiro (June 2009), and Johannesburg (March 2010). Next, the project will travel to Chennai, Kiev, and New York City.

The project is co-directed by London-based South African photographer and AIDS activist Gideon Mendel, who has been chronicling HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1993. Since then his groundbreaking work on the issue has been widely recognized. Through magazine publications, multimedia web and video presentations, and his book, A Broken Landscape, Mendel has been commended for empowering his subjects rather than representing them as objects of pity.

Click here to find out more and watch the videos.

Fashion's Night Out - Custom Perfume to benefit Visual AIDS

What: For the first time Francesco Fino and The Perfume Studio partner to participate in Fashion’s Night Out to celebrate the correlation between Fashion and Fragrance.  Fragrance is your silent accessory and the soul of your personal style. 

Francesco Fino Fashions are made-to-order works of art and Perfumery is an art.  The perfect way to celebrate Fashion, Fragrance and Art is our collaboration with Visual AIDS by providing a 20% contribution of the evening’s Perfume Studio net proceeds.  Visual AIDS utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.

Where: Francesco Fino Atelier, Grand Concourse of the Plaza Hotel, One West 58th Street, New York, NY 10019
Contact:  Sue Phillips (917) 449-1134
Time:  6:00 PM to 8:30 PM – Workshop begins promptly at 6:30 PM
Registration fee:  $35.00*

*The $35.00 registration fee may be applied toward your Custom Perfume purchase of $110.00 or more.  This special ”insiders” Fashion’s Night Out price is a $25.00 savings off our regular entry price of $135.00.  20% of net proceeds will be donated to Visual AIDS.

Limited seating – Register today!

PLAY SMART – Meet & Greet at Boxers

Thanks to everyone who came out for the Play Smart Meet & Greet at Boxers - including artists Aaron Cobbett, Slava Mongutin and Greg Mitchell, plus Play Smart models, Brian, Tim and Caz. Special thanks for Steven Rosen for his event photos - www.stevenrosenphotography.com

 

More pics on facebook.

Fashion's Night Out - Custom Bespoke Perfume to benefit Visual AIDS

From Brooklyn to Brazil to Boston, the fashion industry is already buzzing about the news that this year’s globe-spanning extravaganza Fashion’s Night Out, is back! 

Francesco Fino & The Perfume Studio presented by Scenterprises partner to Celebrate the Correlation between Fashion & Fragrance. Guests will have the opportunity to create their own Bespoke Perfume. 20% of net proceeds will benefit Visual AIDS who utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supportint HIV+ atists & preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over. 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM, Workshop begins promptly at 6:30 PM. Registration fee of $35.00 may be applied to your bespoke perfume purchase. Click here to register or call (917) 449 -1134

Francesco Fino, One West 58th Street Grand Concourse of the Plaza Hotel, NYC

Positive Markings

24-year-old Brad Crelia from Seattle shares the story behind the new tattoo on his right wrist.

via BUTT Magazine

The Tattoo

Sitting in the doctor’s office after class a few weeks ago, I had a sense of what was coming. I had blood drawn a week prior and got the call that my doctor needed to talk to me about the results of my blood work. A thousand cups of coffee couldn’t have gotten my blood going any more than it was that day. When I got into the room and had my doctor sitting in front of me, I thought the veins around my temples would explode. He ran down a list of other sexual transmitted diseases, and at the end of the list he looked me in the eyes. I was told that I’m HIV positive. My body shook, uncontrollably. I imagined all the blood running out of my face. He offered me time to get my thoughts together. I turned him down and asked for a smoke instead. He obliged but only if I promised to come right back. That’s what hit me the hardest: his concern. I thought about his worry that I might not come back or that I could possibly hurt myself, that the severity of this diagnosis worries someone so much that they can hardly let you leave their sight for a smoke.

I walked outside, a friend was with me and before I could say a word, I looked into his eyes and broke down. A ton of bricks came crashing down square on my shoulders and I wanted to disappear – and to think this was only five minutes into the disease. I had a rather normal gay boy’s life growing up; there was my time with drugs and depression, I was beaten up a few times, and safe sex practices were preached to me like the Bible. But at this moment I couldn’t help thinking about how even in the queer community we sometimes make it pretty rough for each other. Gay guys don’t always get along with lesbians and we sometimes laugh at the transgender community. The men and women affected by HIV/AIDS are outcasts to us. I know because I’ve treated them that way myself. I used to think that these people had dug their own graves and played a losing game with the devil; that their problems were their own doing.

Suddenly, standing outside the doctor’s office, I realized my world had changed. The reality of living with HIV might be very different from what I had in my head that moment. I know there have been medical advances. I know that compared to only ten or fifteen years ago, the disease has become somewhat manageable. And I know people can live full lives being HIV positive. But all that doesn’t change my fears. It’s hard for me to separate the reality from what my mind has turned into reality.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotion and I’ve started to learn that I need to throw out all the prejudices I’ve harbored. What makes me any better than anyone else? I’m just a twenty-four year old college student living in Seattle. But more importantly, who knows what tomorrow brings, good or bad. The only thing I can concentrate on now is my health and my friends and family. 
The weight of those crashing bricks from just a few weeks ago has eased away a little. I’ve come to terms with many of my misconceptions. A calmness has set in. When my mother died in 2003 I got a tattoo of her initials on my left wrist to remember the love I have for her and the pain of losing her. A few days after my diagnosis I decided to get another tattoo: the outline of a plus sign on my right wrist. My tattoo of my mom’s initials is a constant reminder of love and pain, and to take advantage of the time we have and the people we love. I feel the same way about the new tattoo. I guess you could say I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve. 

Play Smart - Home Run or Strike Out?

Play Smart Trading Cards is Visual AIDS newest set of Artist Edition Broadsides, promoting harm reduction, HIV prevention and AIDS awareness.  Play Smart is packaged with a set of trading cards, sticker, condoms and lube.  They are distributed for free. 

While Play Smart has hit a home run with some viewers and blogs Bilerico, After Elton, Open Ceremony, Chelsea Now, we also wanted to share this critical review. 

via The New Gay

July 16 2010.  By Ted Kerr.

FOUL! Visual AIDS strikes out in new broadside

Every year New York based Visual AIDS, VA, “the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to HIV prevention and AIDS awareness through producing and presenting visual art projects,” unveils two new broadside projects created with different visual artists to promote  “harm reduction, HIV prevention and AIDS awareness” to diverse audiences.  According to visualaids.org, “Broadsides are a creative response to the lack of provocative and frank HIV-prevention messages in our city and nationally.”

Of the broadsides being released this year is a trading card project called PLAY SMART with photographers Aaron Cobbett, inkedKenny, Greg Mitchell, and Slava Mogutin in consultation with Dr. Demetre Daskalakis at the NYC based The Men’s Sexual Health Project, M*SHP.

Each photographer created a set of trading cards, one side featuring a photo of a man in sports drag and the other communicating ‘stats’. Rather than ‘player’ information, the PLAY SMART trading cards feature the ‘new rules’ of what Daskalakis calls “Smart Sex.” The rules include using a condom, getting tested, talking about HIV / sex with friends, partners and doctors, and getting information on post-exposure prophylaxis.

Visual AIDS supporters like myself and other community members are calling time out on PLAY SMART for its language and imagery.

According to Amy Sadao, Executive Director of Visual AIDS, some early push back on the broadsides came from a NYC POZ activist who asked after reading the name of the trading cards, “What? Am I having dumb sex? Are you calling me dumb?”

As Sadao and Santos explain the PLAY SMART theme and name emerged after the trading card size and sports motif were decided upon. Designed specifically to be given out at clinics Daskalakis runs within NYC sex clubs, it was thought that the trading card size, and sex-positive sport motif would ensure people picked up and retained the cards as well as absorbed the information provided.

As Santos recalls, “Using the word “smart” instead of “safe” was a way of refreshing the concept. People seem to tune out the words “safer sex”… but “smart” was a different way of thinking how to play, like using the proper equipment or talking to your teammate so you know what’s going on ‘on the field’.” Sadao says she hears the critique and, as with everything pertaining to the campaign, it is under consideration as VA thinks of how to roll out of the second phase of the trading cards.

For me the issue with the PLAY SMART trading cards is around how the narrow focus of whom is being ‘traded’ in the cards. All feature fit, able-bodied, predominantly white, men.

As those involved in gay men’s health know being able to navigate condom use, talk about HIV / AIDS with friends, family, doctors, and accessing Post-exposure prophylaxis is often a point of privilege based on race, class, ‘attractiveness / desirability’ and other factors.

Diversity is not represented in the cards. If anything PLAY SMART works against social factors we know to be true;

• HIV rates among visual minority men who have sex with men is disproportionately higher than their white counterparts.
• Racism, class-ism, size-ism, able-ism all factor into sexual negotiation dynamics.

So while the information PLAY SMART wants to get out is very helpful, the images of the card may prevent someone from thinking that the cards are for them, or worse may work to reinforce poor self esteem, heighten senses of not belonging and ensure that the information is never obtained or retained by the intended audience.

PLAY SMART, aside from being culturally and otherwise insensitive also plays into the tyranny of fit white males as the dominate ideal of who is gay, who gets to have gay sex and who can / should be desired and protected.

The supremacy of white fit bodies is such that it rules out other conversations that could come from PLAY SMART.  We can’t talk about condom use if we don’t talk about social isolation. We can’t discuss the need for frank discussion of sexuality unless the cultural differences around sexuality are on the table.

Of course PLAY SMART is not all bad. One could argue that in a way PLAY SMART is advocating for a holistic approach to HIV / STI prevention. By using a sports theme the broadsides can be understood as suggesting ’smart sex’ is a lifestyle choice- taking care of your body is not just about getting fit but also condom use, getting tested etc.

In the end PLAY SMART falls short. It is just sexy. It is just eye catching. Celebrating the male form and being sex positive is much need in gay men’s health work but what is not needed are messages – intended or not – that silence, disappear and under mind bodies already repressed and undervalued in society (often further within gay communities).

Visual AIDS is an amazing, thoughtful, proactive organization that has lead the way in how art can galvanize energy and ideas around HIV / AIDS. PLAY SMART, in my mind does not represent the best of what VA can do – but along the way does raise valuable questions about limits and expectations of campaigns.  If I can venture a guess I would say that Visual AIDS has taken a hit on this one, will go back to the locker room to regroup and will come out swinging better than ever next time.

Ted Kerr is a writer, artist and activist with a focus on HIV / AIDS, queerness and expression. He was HIV Edmonton’s first Artist in Residence and currently contributes to Queermonton – a column about queer life in Edmonton for VUE Weekly. He was a founding member of Exposure: Edmonton’s Queer Arts and Culture Festival.

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Part of Visual AIDS mission is to "provoke dialogue," so please feel free to share, comment or contact us with your thoughts and suggestions at [email protected]

UNAIDS Survey request

Each year, the NGO Delegation to the UNAIDS governing body (called the Programme Coordinating Board or PCB) submits a report to the Board. This is an important opportunity for to present the unique perspectives of civil society on the developments and issues around the AIDS pandemic. Broad input from civil society informs the NGO report, particularly regarding key issues on the agenda, but also regarding persistent or emerging issues “on the ground.” 

The June 2010 board meeting will include agenda items such as non-discrimination; men who have sex with men (MSM); and a thematic focus on sexual and reproductive health services linked to HIV.

Please take a few minutes to complete this anonymous questionnaire, which is divided into three sections. The first section asks general information about you. The second section asks about how stigma and/or discrimination are impeding access to prevention, treatment, care and support. The third section asks about the programming of UNAIDS’ (including the ten Cosponsors) to tackle stigma and/or discrimination in your country or region. 

The Survey is currently also available in Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian and French. It will soon be made available in Thai, Burmese, Swahili and Arabic. The deadline is March 15, 2010. 

Link to English Survey <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YVMZN62> 
Link to Portuguese survey <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YVSMGV8> 
Link to Russian survey <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YVTCZXJ> 
Link to Spanish Survey <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YVTRQHG> 
Link to French Surve <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YVMSYDV> y
Link to Chinese Survey <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YVXG88Y>