Over the years, the ICI has accumulated a small collection of ephemera related to the AIDS pandemic. Whether free postcards or newspaper ads, broadsides of guerilla semiotics or artist projects that appropriate, re-appropriate and invert cultural icons and forms, these objects are silent but poignant reminders of a pandemic that has shaped global culture for almost 30 years now.
ACCESSION #: ICI 21803 ACQUIRED/DONOR: 1998/Visual AIDS TITLE: ‘AIDS It’s Everywhere you want to be’ DISCUSSION: A beautifully simple but powerful broadside by artist and designer Harvey Weiss that was distributed by Visual AIDS for their 1998 Day Without Art. By co-opting this symbol of corporate … Continue readingAIDS ‘VISA’ Broadside
EK ACCESSION #: ICI 22325 ACQUIRED/DONOR: 1992/Unknown TITLE: I want a president by Zoe Leonard DISCUSSION: Created in the early 1990s, this prose piece is not only a reflection of the time in which it was made but is also a prescient telling of our … Continue readingI want a president … with AIDS
ACCESSION #: ICI 22321 TITLE: ‘Ambition Not Compassion with Cure AIDS’ ACQUIRED/DONOR: 1990s/Donor unknown DISCUSSION: For most of the 1990s, patrons to bars and restaurants would find free ‘go-cards’ in a rack by the restroom. For the most part these cards announced products and fashion … Continue readingAIDS Postcard: Ambition not Compassion will cure AIDS
Wojnarowicz, David Weight of the Earth: The Tape Journals of David Wojnarowicz (2002) FIRST LINE: “I’m sitting here in this room and it’s around dusk” LAST LINE: “And maybe somebody coming along and just putting their arms around me for a few minutes.” ICI SHELF: … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: Weight of the Earth
EK ACCESSION #: ICI 22326 TITLE: Art Is Not Enough postcard DISCUSSION: Invitation to a Benefit for ACT UP – LA and CRITICAL MASS held at the PIK-ME UP on February 27,1991. The statement on the front of the card has become, not ironically, a … Continue readingArt Is Not Enough Benefit Invitation
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