Can Art Save Lives?

The AIDS epidemic continues to grow more and more each year, but a lot of us are guilty of associating the word "AIDS" with being homosexual or even promiscuous. But that should not be the case. AIDS can infect anyone who uses a dirty IV needle, gets a blood transfusion, or even innocent children who are born to infected mothers. Because AIDS infects many people, it also brings with it a lifetime of suffering for not only the infected person, but also his or her family. But what do AIDS ands its impact have to do with art?

Because AIDS have been associated with homosexuality, and most people associate homosexuality with the art world, AIDS has also been associated with the art world. We began to see more and more artists being infected with AIDS, but "AIDS-related deaths are not more common in artists, just more visible" (Kocur, 142). So if AIDS-related deaths among artists are more visible, then maybe art is a great way to save the lives of other who are infected with the disease. Now maybe art cannot save lives in the most obvious of ways, but it can have an impact on the population. Ross Bleckner is one of the many artists whose artwork deals with AIDS. He usually creates painting that pertain to human microbiology and would paint cellular formations in his work. He also uses his artworks, such as One Day Fever (1986), to explore the meaning of loss and suffering that is a result of the AIDS epidemic. In One Day Fever you can see legs that have sores on them. These legs represent all of the people that are wounded and suffering, and "In a religious painting Christ would be responsible for the salvation. Here is is the artist. It is his light that that transforms and transports the dead, his light that offers to those afflicted with mortality the possibility of transendence" (Brenson). This piece of art can be seen as the epitome of suffering and what the art world can do to raise awareness of the suffering that can happen to anyone infected with AIDS, whether you are gay or straight. Art can impact us and what better way to use art than to save lives with it? Art can definitely save lives, but not through the power of medication and research, but through the power of awareness and information.

Bibliography:

• Kocur, Zoya, and Simon Leung. 'Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985". Malden, Ma: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. p. 142.
• Brenson, Michael. "Gallery View; Two Artists who Flourish in a Postmodern Climate". New York Times. 22. February, 1987. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/22/arts/gallery-view-two-artists-who-flourish-in-a-postmodern-climate.html?pagewanted=all