VisualAIDS

“You are Cordially Invited”: The Art and Influence of Robert Blanchon - A Panel Discussion

You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real): The Work of Robert Blanchon

 
The Fales Collection at New York University in collaboration with Visual AIDS
 
Panel Discussion
“You are Cordially Invited”: The Art and Influence of Robert Blanchon

Tuesday January 26, 2010
6:30 - 8:30 PM

An event discussing Robert Blanchon as a conceptual artist whose work expands and reiterates many of the themes of 1990s art. Through brief presentations and “interviews” with panelists we will explore Blanchon’s connection to artists as well as emerging trends in contemporary art. Throughout his career, from parodies of the art world to AIDS agit-prop to cerebral, minimalist photography, Blanchon gleaned from art history in order to make his own crucial intervention, and taught his students to do the same.

With
Sasha Archibald, curator
Mary Ellen Carroll, Estate of Robert Blanchon
Laura Parnes, founder of Momenta Art
Ginger Brooks Takahashi, artist
Moderated by Amy Sadao, Visual AIDS

Fales Library and Special Collections
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, Third Floor
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012

Upcoming Programs:
Art or Archive? What Matters To Artists’ Estates

Tuesday February 16, 2010
6:30 – 8:30 PM

This panel will discuss the nature of artists' estates, their placement in archival repositories, copyright issues, and other concerns about the disposition of artists' papers. A discussion among professionals representing legal, artistic, and academic, and other institutional concerns, the evening will explore both the theoretical aspects of how an artistic legacy is maintained and offer practical advice on securing an artist’s oeuvre.
 
With
Ann Butler, Director of Library and Archives, CCS, Bard College
Joy Episalla, Gesso Foundation Board Officer/Estate of Frank Moore
Penny Pilkington, Co-owner, PPOW Gallery
Michael Ward Stout, President, Robert Mapplethrope Foundation
Moderated by Marvin J. Taylor, Director, Fales Library and Special Collections

 
Exhibition continues until February 26, 2010 Extended to March 25, 2010
Gallery Hours: Mon-Fri 10AM – 5:45 PM
The exhibition is free and open to the public
 
Download the You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) brochure here.

Robert Blanchon full color catalog available here or at Fales Library and Special Collection

Visual AIDS acknowledges the profound collaboration of Fales’s Downtown Collection, specifically Marvin J. Taylor and staff.  Blue Medium and Art Matters’s assistance and support helped make this project possible.

RSVP: 212 992-9018 or [email protected]

image: Robert Blanchon, Gifts for Harold, 1994 (detail)

World AIDS Day Lecture: Seeing AIDS

World AIDS Day Lecture: Seeing AIDS

Harvard Art Museum/Arthur M. Sackler Museum
485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA, 02138

Philip Yenawine, former Director of Education at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from 1983 to 1993, Yenawine was engaged with activist artists. He will reflect on the impact of AIDS on the cultural sector, artists' responses to the crisis, and December 1 as "A Day without Art."

The above program is presented in conjunction with ACT UP New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987–1993, an exhibition of politically charged posters, stickers, and other visual media that emerged during a pivotal moment of AIDS activism in New York City. Organized by the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and the Harvard Art Museum. On view at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts October 15–December 23, 2009.

Free admission.
Sackler galleriers will remain open until 6pm.

You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real): The Work of Robert Blanchon

You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real): The Work of Robert Blanchon
Curated by Sasha Archibald, Tania Duvergne and Bethany Martin-Breen

The Fales Library & Special Collection
@ Bobst Library, New York University
70 Washington Square South, Third Floor, New York

November 19, 2009 – February 26, 2010 Extended to March 25, 2010

Reception: December 1, 2009, World AIDS Day 6:30 – 8:30 PM

 

Coming ten years after Robert Blanchon’s untimely death of AIDS, the first New York exhibition of his works, writing and ephemera marks the transfer of major holding of his estate into the publicly accessible archives of the Fales Library at New York University. It also concludes a multi-year collaboration between the artist’s estate and Visual AIDS to collect and present the work of the late photo-based conceptual artist.

 

The exhibition offers an opportunity to finally examine a decade-long history of creation marked by a witty, insightful treatment of loss, memory, and mortality, a mischievousness concerning the pretenses of the art world, and an original treatment of the construction of identity. A conceptual artist, Robert Blanchon (1965-1999) was primarily interested in the photographic medium – specifically, the materiality of the photograph – but worked also in sculpture, video, mail art, text, and performance.

 

Blanchon’s art is characteristic of the art historical movements of the early 1990’s. Like many young artists of the time, he grappled with the legacies of minimalism and cultural studies, the relation between politics and art, and his own identification as a gay, HIV-positive artist who nonetheless eschewed identity politics as the basis of an art practice. But his rich and diverse corpus brings an opportunity to glance back at the period from an intimate perspective while signaling artistic traits that will be found beyond the 1990’s. Similarly as Paul Thek (1933-1988), David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992) and Félix González-Torres (1957-1996), Blanchon sought relevance beyond the poetics of queer culture, and the vulnerability, pathos, and humor of his oeuvre will resonate with anyone who has felt the fragility of being human.

 

Blanchon died at a moment of increasing exhibition opportunities and growing critical acclaim, leaving unachieved and, for years unviewed, most of his oeuvre. But he was feverishly productive in his condensed life span and left behind a body of work with unusually lucid themes, possibly foreseeing that, only after his death, his works would finally be seen together. It is important to note that he spent his entire creative life with AIDS.

Panels and Events:

“You are Cordially Invited”: The Art and Influence of Robert Blanchon
Tuesday January 26, 2010
6:30 - 8:30 PM

An event discussing Robert Blanchon as a conceptual artist whose work expands and reiterates many of the themes of 1990s art. Through brief presentations and “interviews” with panelists we will explore Blanchon’s connection to artists as well as emerging trends in contemporary art. Throughout his career, from parodies of the art world to AIDS agit-prop to cerebral, minimalist photography, Blanchon gleaned from art history in order to make his own crucial intervention, and taught his students to do the same.

 

Art or Archive? What Matters To Artists’ Estates
Tuesday February 16, 2010
6:30 – 8:30 PM

This panel will discuss the nature of artists' estates, their placement in archival repositories, copyright issues, and other concerns about the disposition of artists' papers. A discussion among professionals representing legal, artistic, and academic, and other institutional concerns, the evening will explore both the theoretical aspects of how an artistic legacy is maintained and offer practical advice on securing an artist’s oeuvre.

"Robert Blanchon" catalogue available through Visual AIDS.

For more info, contact Visual AIDS at 212-627-9855 / [email protected]

ACT UP NEW YORK: ACTIVISM, ART, AND THE AIDS CRISIS

EXHIBITION: ACT UP NEW YORK: ACTIVISM, ART, AND THE AIDS CRISIS, 1987–1993

October 15—December 23, 2009
Opening celebration: Thursday, October 15
following the 6 pm Carpenter Center lecture

Harvard exhibition of visual media in AIDS activism marks 20 year anniversary
of the formation of ACT UP New York -- Premiere of the ACT UP Oral History Project

The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and the Harvard Art Museum present ACT UP New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987–1993, an exhibition of over 70 politically-charged posters, stickers, and other visual media that emerged during a pivotal moment of AIDS activism in New York City. The exhibition chronicles New York’s AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) through an examination of compelling graphics created by various artist collectives that populated the group. The exhibition also features the premiere of the ACT UP Oral History Project, a suite of over 100 video interviews with surviving members of ACT UP New York that offer a retrospective portal on a decisive moment in the history of the gay rights movement, 20th-century visual art, our nation’s discussion of universal healthcare, and the continuing HIV/AIDS epidemic. The exhibition opens just over 20 years after the formation of ACT UP and also marks the 40 year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States. The exhibition ACT UP New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987–1993 provides an opportunity to reinvigorate a debate around the realities of HIV/AIDS today, and about the links between visual art, political activism, health, and human rights. (read more here)

Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman will speak at the opening.  Full exhibition and event schedule here.

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University
24 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

ACT UP Oral History Project
www.actuporalhistory.org

2009 National LGBTI Health Summit

This summer, Chicago will be playing host to the 2009 National LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex) Health Summit. Beginning August 14th and running through lunch on Tuesday the 18th, the Summit will focus on “Health Through the Life Course” and is dedicated to preserving and improving the emotional, physical, spiritual, intellectual, psychological, environmental, and social health and wellness of LGBTI people of all races, ages, and professional/non professional backgrounds; from urban and rural settings; representing every socioeconomic class.

For more info visit www.2009lgbtihealth.org

Sunil Gupta - Wish You Were Here

SOUTH ASIAN LESBIAN & GAY ASSOCIATION (SALGA) and CENTER for LESBIAN & GAY STUDIES (CLAGS) presents:

WISH YOU WERE HERE
Conversation with Sunil Gupta
Moderator: Chapal Mehra

Sunday, March 29 from 5-7 PM

LGBT Center
308 West 13th Street
New York, NY 10011

Sunil Gupta, an internationally acclaimed gay rights activist, photographer and artist will present his work followed by a conversation and Q&A. Gupta’s work, deeply personal yet political, addresses sexuality, race, migration, and multicultural identity. His award winning photography has been the subject of numerous exhibitions. For current and past exhibitions and more information about his work visit www.sunilgupta.net

Access to Life: Photojournalism on AIDS

Panel Discussion

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
7:00 pm

FREE

The New School
Tishman Auditorium
66 West 12th Street
New York, New York

Aperture Foundation at The New School presents this panel discussion as part of the series Confounding Expectations: Photography in Context. Over the past few years a quiet global revolution has enabled millions infected by HIV to live healthy lives through the free antiretroviral treatment program initiated by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. In Access to Life (Aperture, March 2009), eight of the world's leading photojournalists, all members of Magnum Photos, follow thirty individuals in nine countries before, and four months after, they began the antiretroviral treatment, documenting the transformative effect on their bodies, their lives, and the lives of their families. Here are the faces, voices, and stories representing millions of people who would otherwise be dead if not for access to free life-saving drugs. But there are also the stories of those individuals for whom treatment came too late showing how the fight to bring access to AIDS treatment is still a difficult one. Photographers include: Jonas Bendiksen (Haiti), Jim Goldberg (India), Alex Majoli (Russia), Steve McCurry (Vietnam), Paolo Pellegrin (Mali), Gilles Peress (Rwanda), Eli Reed (Peru), and Larry Towell (South Africa and Swaziland).

The New School, Aperture, and Magnum bring together some of these photographers to speak on behalf of this project, including: Steve McCurry and Larry Towell; others to be announced.

The ACT UP Oral History Projects

The ACT UP Oral History Projects
Intergenerational Dialogues on HIV Prevention Justice
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
6:30 - 8:30 PM

LGBT Community Center
208 West 13th Street (btwn 7th/8th aves.), NYC

Free ~ Open to the public ~ Refreshments provided

ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) pioneered AIDS activism in the 1980s.  In the past five years, ACT UP Oral History Projects in New York and Philadelphia have catalogued hundreds of interviews from surviving members of these chapters to document, understand and share how their members introduced new and effective methods of grassroots community organizing.  Change can be made, and sharing these stories helps us understand how to do it.  And raises interesting questions about our work for HIV prevention justice:

How did ACT UP use performance, art, media, sharp analysis and political savvy to revolutionize access to treatments and expose the vicious politics of health for the most marginalized people in this country?
What does this movement teach us about enabling concrete changes in medical and scientific research, health care delivery, and law?
How does this work transform entrenched cultural ideas about sexuality, illness, and health care?
How did the dynamics of gender, class and race as well as the unique urban settings of the chapters affect the agenda and tactics?
What does this all mean in the context of today's domestic epidemic and a global AIDS movement?

Join us for an engaging discussion as we bridge generations of HIV prevention justice activism in delving into these questions, seeking some insight among the roots of the AIDS movement.
Speakers Include:
Sarah Schulman - ACT UP New York Oral History Project
Brent Nicholson Earle  - ACT UP New York
Pascal Emmer - ACT UP Philadelphia Oral History Project
Jessica Rodriguez- ACT UP Philadelphia Oral History Project
Jose de Marco - ACT UP Philadelphia

Moderator: James Learned

Co-sponsored by:Community Education Group,Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA), Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), Harlem United, Harm Reduction Coalition, Manhattan HIV/AIDS Care Network, New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN), Queers for Economic Justice, Sylvia Rivera Law Project, TruthAIDS

www.champnetwork.org // www.gaycenter.org

Bridge NY hosts REALCORE

REALCORE - the digital porno revolution
A monologue / performance by Sergio Messina

Discussion to follow with Barbara DeGenevieve and Charles Lum

Bridge Art Fair
@ The Waterfront
222 12th Ave, NYC

Saturday, March 7 from 1:00-4:00 PM

Sergio Messina claims that what he calls Realcore (sexual images made by amateurs and freely posted online), is not only substantially different from hardcore, but has innovative political, social, and sexual value, value that can change forever the way we look at, and consider, pornography. In the 1980s Joseph Beuys said "The revolution is Us." If this is true, what has been theorized for a long time as a tool for gender oppression and the barbarization of sexuality, could turn out to be radical, funny and even revolutionary.

The Survivors - Artists Talk & Performance

A panel discussion and audience Q&A with four creators whose work reflects a personal experience with crisis.

Saturday, September 27, 2008
2-5 PM
FREE

Corridor Gallery
334 Grand Ave (btw Gates and Greene), Brooklyn