Homosexuality in art is a subject that has recently exploded onto the art as a significant topic of discussion. Factors such as the AIDS epidemics have stigmatized the gay community, specifically males. Douglas Crimp's article on the state of the politics and the sociological impact involving AIDS provides a clear criticism, but I feel the information to be somewhat dated. Statistics such as "By Thanksgiving 1987, 25,644 known dead..." (Kocur and Leung 146)offers shocking numbers, but where is the problem today? Upon looking up statistics from www.avert.org, I discovered the AIDS epidemic peaked around 1994, and since has steadily dropped to 14,000 deaths in 2007. While obviously 14,000 is an astounding number, there is certainly a real decrease in deaths.
Considering the decline, one must consider what has influenced this drop. I believe it has to do with the increasing openness of homosexuality, since it so closely tied to the AIDS epidemic. Contemporary art has been successfully pushing the validity of queer art for years, most notably pioneered by the success of Andy Warhol in the 60's and 70's(Doyle 345). In more recent times, homosexuals have legitimized their art as an identity issue with the same validity of race and gender based art.(Doyle 341-353) I think its obvious that since the art community has opened the doors for these issues, homosexuality has been more humanized and thus the closely tied AIDS epidemic has been humanized as well, especially considering Bill T. Jones' interviews about AIDS has helped humanize the problem(Kocur and Leung 146). Groups such as ACT UP take a more aggreesive political action against the lack of attention to AIDS by the government. (Kocur and Leung 144). Perhaps I am wrong, as this is only a conjecture of what power art has to create change, but I believe there may be a correlation.
Crimp, Douglas. “AIDS: Cultural Analysis/ Cultural Activism.” Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985. Ed. Zoya Kocur and Simon Leung. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. 141-149.
Doyle, Jennifer. "Queer Wall Paper". 343-353.
Image: http://www.avert.org/usa-statistics.htm
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting post. I never thought to research the current number of people afflicted with AIDS, and I am shocked to see the dramatic increase and decrease of the epidemic in only 26 years. I, too, believe that the freedom to openly talk about homosexuality has helped disseminate important information concering AIDS and thus has contributed to the decline of AIDS diagnoses. I am not sure that I attribute this decline mainly to the power of art, but it certainly has made an enormous impact. Public art, especially, has the ability to reach and affect many people. I also agree that artwork has helped to humanize homosexuality and AIDS, subjects that were previously foreign and far removed from many people
ReplyDelete