“The point of departure of AIDS activist graphics is neither the studio nor the artist’s private vision, but AIDS activism. Social conditions are viewed from the perspective of the movement working to change them. AIDS activist art is grounded in the accumulated knowledge and political analysis of the AIDS crisis, produced collectively by the entire [...]
Artery
Since the last World AIDS DAY, we’ve entered the Third Millenium and are on the brink of the third decade of the AIDS epidemic. The irony is that it’s clearer than ever that there are numerous AIDS epidemics, not just one. For many people with HIV/AIDS in the developed world, the situation has improved. [...]
Available for the first time on home DVD on March 18th Tongues Untied shares fierce examples of homophobia and racism: the man refused entry to a gay bar because of his color; the college student left bleeding on the sidewalk after a gay-bashing; the loneliness and isolation of the drag queen. Yet they also affirm [...]
Black is an open-ended identity. 255
What we have been seeing in recent years is the development of a new politics of difference which states that we are not interested in defining ourselves in relation to someone else, nor are we simply articulating out cultural and secual differences. …We are creating a sense of ourselves and out place within different and [...]
In direct dialogue with the post-structuralist, deconstructive work preceding it, black independent filmmaking and criticism added an anti-essentialist politics of race, nation, and ethnicity to these earlier traditions that had typically sought far and wide for an “other” located outside the Anglo-European context. “One issue at stake,” write Isaac Julien and Kobena Mercer, “is the [...]
Available for the first time on home DVD on March 18th Tongues Untied shares fierce examples of homophobia and racism: the man refused entry to a gay bar because of his color; the college student left bleeding on the sidewalk after a gay-bashing; the loneliness and isolation of the drag queen. Yet they also affirm [...]
The groundswell of independent videotapes addressing AIDS [are] within a rich history of social chang emedia and the “committed documentary,” one that dates back to the Bolshevik revolution, one that has born witness to the many other wars for social justice. 61
Authority must be constituted by an “expert.” Television always speaks about AIDS from its mythical “outside” position of objectivity–even its so-called snesitive dramas about gay PWAs somehow always manage to erase any sense of being inside a community. It’s perhaps here that the greatest claims can be made for an “us” versus “them” position, if [...]
Intentionality is commonly a discredited concept on media criticism, yet for any video artist making social change media (and certainly for the majority of these AIDS producers), it is a central issue.
The ACT UP Oral History Project is a collection of interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York. The project is coordinated by Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman, with camera work by James Wentzy (in New York) and (on the West Coast) S. Leo Chiang and Tracy Wares.
The [...]
Welcome to the AIDS-Arts Timeline, a people’s history of the epidemic and the associated arts. This searchable, double timeline will chronicle both AIDS events and AIDS-arts events of the past two decades throughout the world. Just as it is a truism that every locale and society has its own AIDS epidemic, so too does [...]
As the only arts organization of its kind, Visual AIDS is a resource for art programming promoting AIDS awareness and HIV-prevention. While art projects evolve annually, they are all based in the knowledge that visual art offers opportunities to discuss the AIDS pandemic and its attendant issues. Documenting HIV-positive artists’ work in the Frank Moore [...]
Safer sex educational video is a form of direct action. We recognize that sexuality cuts across socially constructed boundaries between races, classes and genders. We make representations that legitimate specific acts–anal, vaginal, oral sex–and we can create an atmosphere conducive to sexual experimentation. In the face of increasing censorship amidst a morally conservative climate, we [...]
What counts in activist art it is propaganda effects: stealing the procedures of other artists is part of the plan–it is works, we use it. 49
What is HIV stigma?
HIV stigma refers to the HIV-related shame, fear, prejudice, discrimination and guilt that exist in the gay community and the world at larg
History and Mission
The mission of the GMAI is to leverage the power of media to help prevent the spread of HIV and reduce the stigma facing those already living with the disease.
The GMAI was launched in January 2004 at an historic meeting of top media executives from around the globe, convened by former United Nations [...]