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Emmett Patterson

Prof. Connelly

WGSS 350

April 1, 2015

Making the Invisible Visible: Visual Art Activism during the U.S. AIDS Epidemic

Some argue that the United States’ AIDS epidemic effectively destroyed a generation of

queer people and, along with them, the queer culture they had created. While it is true that the

epidemic ravaged communities and impeded much of the social progress that the Gay Liberation

movement had made, it did not necessarily destroy the entirety of queer culture: it radically

changed its course. Reminiscent of the European Renaissance, art activism during the height of

the U.S. AIDS epidemic allowed for the remembrance of fallen community members and, at the

same time, created sociopolitical power that served to critique and dismantle oppressive

institutions that perpetuated inaction on AIDS. Visual art embodying messages of anger at

complacent officials, compassion for community members living with AIDS, and public health

educational messages emerged as a new cultural wave in a time of darkness. Prominent pieces of

art, like Keith Haring’s symbolic subway graffiti and Gran Fury art collective’s AIDSGATE

vilified portrait of President Reagan, remain entrenched in the rich, visual history of the 1980s

U.S. AIDS epidemic. The use of symbols and coding, the formation of collective groups to foster

“Art should be something that liberates your soul, provokes the imagination and

encourages people to go further.” —Keith Haring

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protest art collaboration, and the overall impact of art activism solidified an intersection between

art, the public, and the epidemic, making an invisible killer visible.

Using art as a social and political tool geared towards an activist mission is not unique to

the U.S. AIDS epidemic. Art activism and the political artists who embody it have been part of

political history for as long as art has been in the public sphere. Within the United States, writer

Art Hazelwood says that art activism—art that is more than “art for art’s sake”—can best be

understood in its development from the Great Depression in the 1930s up to the present day

(Hazelwood). During the Great Depression, a widespread movement of artists began addressing

politics in their creations, organizing exhibitions, centralizing critical social issues, and even

unionizing (Hazelwood). The mediums introduced into the political art lexicon ranged from

performance art to graphic novels and everything in between.

Hazelwood comments that the act of creating political art, not just its content, causes a

discomfort among those who believe that politics and art should be separate; however,

Hazelwood contests that political art is different from all other forms of art in that it “intends to

have an effect on the world” (Hazelwood). In their journal article “Art as Activism, Activism as

Art,” author Kirsten Dufour draws parallels between the purpose and execution of both art and

activism. Dufour postulates that artistic production and activism involve “collaboartions and

communities, processes rather than products” and “challenge social realms,” all while working

outside of institutions (Dufour 157). Visual protest art, which is replicated through posters at

demonstrations, creates disorder, sustains “the culture of the streets, and generates the

directionality of social change” (Dufour 157).

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What made the transition of political art into AIDS art activism so natural was that the

virus primarily affected a community filled to the brim with young artists, who were used to

turning experiences of violence, loss, and rejection into art filled with profound expression.

Using similar methods, these artists transformed their devastating diagnoses into constructive

artistic rage. Playwright and activist Larry Kramer said, “[Art] was the only thing we had, the

only way we could get any attention…We were a bunch of gay people; this is what we knew how

to do. We knew how to pretend. We knew how to make things pretty” (qtd. in Green). And while

the art itself was not what mainstream audiences would consider “pretty”—bloody handprints

stenciled in the streets alongside Keith Haring’s comically crude renderings of “Debbie Dick”—

what mattered is that the art was effective for the particular struggle at hand and the individuals

involved.

Those individuals established a variety of artist collectives in response to the AIDS crisis.

In a personal interview with Avram Finkelstein, one of the founding members of both the

Silence = Death and Gran Fury artist collectives, he discussed how artist collectives grew out of

personal relationships. Finkelstein was born into a political family and “grew up on the

Left” (Finkelstein). His politics and early involvement in the Vietnam War protests and the 1968

Poor People’s Campaign steered him in the direction of involvement in Gay Liberation and AIDS

activism. However, a more personal reason finally drew Finkelstein into AIDS activism: his

partner, Don, began showing signs of immunosuppression in 1981. Following Don’s death,

Finkelstein formed an AIDS-focused artist collective. “Silence = Death was formed by people

who knew Don,” said Finkelstein. “By the time Gran Fury came into being, very few of the

founders knew Don personally. But they knew me” (Finkelstein). The first meetings of the

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Silence = Death collective were more like personal gatherings among friends; however, topics of

conversation quickly turned to politics. Finkelstein noted that personal experiences dealing with

the destruction of AIDS drew these personal conversations and the artists themselves into

political engagement. Political engagement meant action through visual art. From this, the

collective created one of the most infamous, iconographic masterpieces from the AIDS epidemic:

SILENCE = DEATH.

SILENCE = DEATH (Fig. 1) took six months of meticulous planning to create. Although

visually simple, the planning that went into the most central image of the epidemic was vital to

its creation and consumption. Finkelstein decided that using symbols rather than photographs

would be the best way to make their message relatable and applicable to a large audience. “With

photographs, you have to consider the gender of the body, the color of the skin,” and any other

physical implications of social identity (Finkelstein). “We wanted to be as inclusive as possible,

and you just can’t do that with photography,” remarked Finkelstein. When asked about the use of

the pink triangle, reminiscent of the Nazi concentration camp symbol for gay inmates,

Finkelstein delved into a conversation about the intentions of symbols. “All lesbian and gay

symbols…were problematic,” said Finkelstein, noting that the Silence = Death collective was

looking for a symbol that would be widely recognized but also inclusive and non-appropriative.

Instead of using the upside-down pale pink triangle, Finkelstein’s collective decided to adopt it

by flipping it and darkening its pink hue. But the visual iconography of SILENCE = DEATH

does not stand alone. “We wanted to communicate about politics to two different audiences,”

Finkelstein recalled. The main text, which reads “SILENCE = DEATH,” was intended to imply

to the larger society that the lesbian and gay community was politically organized. The modified

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text on the bottom was meant for the lesbian and gay community, and it reads: “Why is Reagan

silent about AIDS? What is really going on at the Center for Disease Control, the Federal Drug

Administration, and the Vatican? Gays and lesbians not expendable…Use your power…Vote…

Boycott…Defend yourselves…Turn anger, grief, and fear into action” (Fig. 1). This modified

text was meant to stimulate political organization within the lesbian and gay community.

SILENCE = DEATH was the conversation starter in a series of posters created by the

Silence = Death collective and used by the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power—ACT UP. Next in

the series was AIDSGATE (Fig. 2), which also included tiered visual codes and messages for

different audiences. The main text meant for the general population is “AIDSGATE” plastered

across the neon green face of President Reagan, commenting on the connections between the

Reagan administration’s silence surrounding the Watergate scandal and their subsequent silence

on AIDS. The modified text reads:

This political scandal must be investigated! 54% of people with AIDS in NYC are Black

or Hispanic…AIDS is the No. 1 killer of women between the ages of 24 and 29 in

NYC…By 1991, more people will have died of AIDS than in the entire Vietnam War…

What is Reagan’s real policy on AIDS? Genocide of all Non-whites, Non-males, and

Non-heterosexual?…SILENCE = DEATH. (Fig 2)

While the use of the President’s face on a protest poster seems to guarantee brute political

backlash from the White House, Finkelstein and the Silence = Death collective found that there

was little reaction. “Most people agreed with us,” Finkelstein admitted. By the time the Silence =

Death collective created AIDSGATE in 1987, President Reagan still had not taken action on

AIDS even though 71,176 people had been diagnosed and 41,027 people had died (Bronski). By

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the end of Reagan’s time in office in 1989, 115,786 people in the U.S. had been diagnosed with

AIDS and more than 70,000 of them had died (Bronski). AIDSGATE and the use of Reagan as an

icon clearly denoted who was the enemy and where art activists should channel their political

angers.

The use of icons and symbols to create coded messages about AIDS and political action

expanded beyond the Silence = Death collective. One of the most recognized and active artists in

the 1980s was Keith Haring. Keith Haring dedicated himself to providing accessible, public art

that addressed social issues and critiqued institutional power. Haring virtually created an entire

language and lexicon of symbols that addressed power inequalities, fear, corruption, and hope:

By using symbols, Haring addresses different issues that were [actually] taking place in

society in that period. The political stance of Haring’s symbolism lies in the acts against

power (anti-power) of mass media, government and religion or a combination of all.

Through the usage of symbols he wanted to create an awareness to be conscious about

the things you are doing and to be aware of the external forces you cannot control.

(de Vries 24)

In Haring’s work, popular symbols like the radiant baby and the family dog are a growing part of

mainstream aesthetic culture today. At the time he was actively creating art, Haring’s symbols

surpassed simple aestheticism, encoding layer upon layer of politicized and personal meaning.

Borrowing from SILENCE = DEATH (Fig. 1), Haring’s Ignorance = Fear (Fig. 6) depicts

Haring’s infamous figures, branded with red X’s, mimicking the three wise monkeys—see no

evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Accompanying the figures is a message borrowed from the

Silence = Death collective’s original creation—a call to action to fight against AIDS juxtaposed

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next to a pink triangle. In Haring’s work, the pink triangle operated as a symbol of gay pride and

identification as well as AIDS in his later work (“Keith Haring: The Political Line Symbols”).

When Haring was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 (“Bio”), a new symbol appeared in his art. Art

historians and researchers believe that, while the pink triangle and the X figures represented

individuals living with AIDS, the horned semen (Fig. 7) represented AIDS itself (de Vries 24).

Snakes, alongside monsters and bats, represent “hellishness, fear, horror, or death” (“Keith

Haring: The Political Line Symbols”). Haring’s STOP AIDS (Fig. 8) shows two figures joined

together as a pair of scissors cutting a snake—the AIDS virus—in half. While meaning behind

art is based on individual perception, according to Haring’s lexicon, the artist seems to be

showing that the only way to destroy AIDS is to collectively act. Keith Haring’s use of coded

symbols constructed an easily readable visual history of the experience living with AIDS during

the epidemic.

Art activism during the AIDS epidemic specifically impacted two cultural spheres:

politics and public health. While politics and public health cannot be separated as two completely

different institutions, art addressed them in different ways. Gran Fury collective’s work

incorporated public health messages—those outside of the politicized health care system—to

bring awareness to who was affected by AIDS. The modified text of various AIDS protest

posters contain critical public health statistics. Silence = Death collective’s AIDSGATE (Fig. 2)

has modified text that addresses the disproportionate prevalence of AIDS for people of color—

accounting for 54% of all cases in NYC—and that AIDS is the most prominent killer of women

in NYC ages 24 to 29 (Fig. 2). Gran Fury’s WOMEN DON’T GET AIDS: THEY JUST DIE

FROM IT (Fig. 3) poster’s modified text reads: “65% of HIV positive women get sick and die

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from chronic infections that don’t fit the Centers for Disease Control’s definition of AIDS.

Without that recognition women are denied access to what little healthcare exists. The CDC must

expand the definition of AIDS” (Fig. 3). This poster used cause-specific mortality data to call on

the CDC to broaden their definition of AIDS to include women in order to collect accurate data

on AIDS incidence, prevalence, and mortality (Finkelstein).

Some of these public health messages coded within protest art also aimed to dispel the

myths surrounding transmission. Gran Fury’s “Kissing Doesn’t Kill” campaign supported

evidence at the time that AIDS could not be spread through human saliva. READ MY LIPS (Fig.

4) and Kissing Doesn’t Kill (Fig. 5) portray lesbian and gay couples kissing in an attempt to

dispel the saliva myth. But even these posters—and their creators—that proclaimed public health

messages held political convictions. The modified text of Kissing Doesn’t Kill (Fig. 5) reads:

“KISSING DOESN’T KILL: GREED AND INDIFFERENCE DO. Corporate greed, government

inaction, and public indifference make AIDS a political crisis.” Art activism exemplifies the

notion that culture cannot be demarcated; public health and politics, especially in the U.S. AIDS

epidemic, were inextricably intertwined.

Explicitly political messages can be seen in SILENCE = DEATH (Fig. 1), AIDSGATE

(Fig. 2), and Ignorance = Fear (Fig. 6). These posters address the silence of political players and

institutions around addressing AIDS. Rather than expressing a desire to work with political

institutions, contemporary art activism stands outside of them. Author Boris Groys notes that

historians frequently refer to the Russian avant-garde artists of the 1920s as the starting point for

contemporary art activism; however, Groys asserts that, because Russian avant-garde was

supported by Soviet authorities, they knew power was on their side and did not have to

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circumvent political institutions (Groys). Further, Groys states, “Contemporary art activism has,

on the contrary, no reason to believe in external political support. Art activism acts on its own—

relying only on its own networks and on weak and uncertain financial support from progressively

minded art institutions” (Groys). Within the cultural period created by the AIDS epidemic, art

activism’s purpose broadened beyond just changing political institutions to commemorating a

ravaged community. Understanding that art is not separate from culture and that politics is a part

of culture, it is plain to see that political art can have unmistakable effects on changing the real

world. Political art is a force that “keeps the human spirit alive. It keeps the flame of justice

burning. It keeps memory alive. It moves with the struggles and moves those struggles

forward” (Hazelwood). AIDS art activism dynamically allowed for the critique and rage to be

expressed at stagnant institutions as well as for grief and despair to be expressed for fallen

community members.

When a community is shaken by the violence that is the denial of health services, the vile

complacency on behalf of their elected leaders, and the suffering that accompanies losing friends

and lovers, what truly measures their resiliency is what they do with their pain and with their

rage. Artists during the U.S. AIDS epidemic effectively and beautifully challenged stagnant

institutions and officials while also protecting their community and remembering those they lost.

AIDS art activism and its use of symbols and coding created by individual artists and artist

collectives for the purposes of protest art allowed a community to remember their horrific past

but ignited them to fight for a more promising future.

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Works Cited

“Bio.” The Keith Haring Foundation. The Keith Haring Foundation, 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

Bronski, Michael. “The Truth About Reagan and AIDS.” ACT UP. n.p., 2003. Web.

29 Mar. 2015.

De Vries, Remco. The Message of Keith Haring: A Political Point of View. MA thesis. University

of Amsterdam, 2013. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.

DuFour, Kirsten. “Art as Activism, Activism as Art.” Review of Education Pedagogy & Cultural

Studies 24:1-2 (2010): 157-167. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.

Finkelstein, Avram. Personal interview. 31 Mar. 2015.

Green, Jesse. “When Political Art Mattered.” The New York Times. The New York Times

Company, 7 Dec. 2003. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.

Groys, Boris. “On Art Activism.” E-flux. 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2015.

Hazelwood, Art. “Art, Artists, and Activism: 1930s to Today.” ArtBusiness. Alan Bamberger,

2011. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.

“Keith Haring: The Political Line Symbols.” deYoung Legion of Honor. Fine Arts Museums of

San Francisco, 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

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Visual Index

1.

AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. SILENCE = DEATH, 1986. Poster.

Text Description: “SILENCE = DEATH: Why is Reagan silent about AIDS? What is really going on at the Center for Disease Control, the Federal Drug Administration, and the Vatican? Gays and lesbians not expendable…Use your power…Vote…Boycott…Defend yourselves…Turn anger, grief, and fear into action.”

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2.

AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. AIDSGATE, 1987. Poster.

Text description: “AIDSGATE: This political scandal must be investigated! 54% of people with AIDS in NYC are Black or Hispanic…AIDS is the No. 1 killer of women between the ages of 24 and 29 in NYC…By 1991, more people will have died of AIDS than in the entire Vietnam War…What is Reagan’s real policy on AIDS? Genocide of all Non-whites, Non-males, and Non-heterosexual?…SILENCE = DEATH.”

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3.

Gran Fury. WOMEN DON’T GET AIDS. THEY JUST DIE FROM IT, 1990. Poster.

Text description: “WOMEN DON’T GET AIDS. THEY JUST DIE FROM IT: 65% of HIV positive women get sick and die from chronic infections that don’t fit the Centers for Disease Control’s definition of AIDS. Without that recognition women are denied access to what little healthcare exists. The CDC must expand the definition of AIDS.”

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4.

Gran Fury. READ MY LIPS, 1989. Poster.

Text description: “READ MY LIPS: FIGHT HOMOPHOBIA. FIGHT AIDS.”

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5.

Gran Fury. Kissing Doesn’t Kill, 1989. Poster, offset lithography.

Text description: “KISSING DOESN’T KILL: GREED AND INDIFFERENCE DO. Corporate greed, government inaction, and public indifference make AIDS a political crisis.”

6.

Keith Haring. Ignorance = Fear, 1989. Poster, 24 x 43 1/4 inches.

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7.

Keith Haring. Untitled, 1988. Sumi Ink on Paper, 22 1/2 x 30 inches.

8.

Keith Haring. STOP AIDS, 1989. Silkscreen, 46 7/8 x 33 inches