Arts, Activism and the AIDS Crisis

WORDS BY Libby Phillips

Art and activism have often gone hand and hand. Art as a vehicle for free speech has allowed artists to comment on society, politics, and culture through visual media. Making art can bring awareness to modern issues, but it is far from activism. However, many artists have used their platform as a way to inspire activism or engage with it themselves. These elements, perhaps more than in any other time in history, intertwined during the AIDS crisis. Artists who were personally affected used art to tell the stories of their friends, family members, and people who society ignored and left for dead. In particular, Keith Haring, Brian Weil, and Nan Golden stand out as artists who not only raised awareness of the crisis when no one else would, but also took the step towards activism to help the LGBT community.

The AIDS crisis in America has been labelled by some as a genocide due to President Ronald Reagan’s refusal to talk about the tragedy or invest in finding a cure. It took over a year, until after more than 12,000 people had died, for the president to mention AIDS publically. The epidemic led to increased homophobia, anti-gay policies in health care and the government, and brought the gay rights movement to a halt. Keith Haring, who died of AIDS in 1990, is likely the most popular artist to represent the crisis in art. His iconic, dancing pop-art figures reflect his views on a variety of social issues of the day: South African apartheid, child well-being, and LGBT rights. As an activist, he utilized graffiti and guerilla art to communicate his sentiments. He also donated designs to ACT-UP, National Coming Out Day, and Day Without Art/World AIDS Day and contributed to the Silence = Death campaign. It is especially important to recognize Haring’s social activism due to his recent revival in pop culture. Although the rekindled interest in his work does well to revive him, we must be careful to not let oversaturation detract from the brave stances he took.

Brian Weil used photography to show the reality of the AIDS crisis, most notably in his book Every 17 Seconds: A Global Perspective On The Aids Crisis. His photos are often grainy, dark, and partially distorted. The effect brings on the sense of death and dyingness to the viewer while also reinforcing the humanity and life, though fading, in the subject. In 1985, Weil joined ACT Up and, later, started a needle exchange program in New York to help limit the spread of AIDS. This organization still lives on today and is now known as New York Harm Reduction Educators (NYHRE). Additionally, in 1994, Weil founded City Wide Needle Exchange, a similar program to that of NYHRE.

Nan Goldin is another key voice in telling the stories of those impacted by AIDS. Her Ballad of Sexual Dependency series captures the lives of the LGBT community after Stonewall and during the AIDS crisis. The photographs are effusive, bright and seem to have captured people in ephemeral moments, now living infinitely in her prints. Goldin reminds us of the happiness and joy in the lives of people shunned and deserted by American leaders and the American public. Today, Goldin continues her activism against Purdue Pharma with Prescription Addiction Intervention Now (PAIN), using demonstration techniques and art to fight the opioid epidemic.

Art can define time and be a product of its time, so cannot be apolitical. Art is meant to communicate, and to communicate a message of power, resilience, recovery, and strength is a noble endeavour on the part of the artist. The three aforementioned artists found their voice and the voice of their community through visual depictions of their struggle when no one else would acknowledge their strife. Activism through art and by art should not go unrecognized, as it is largely thanks to artists that these causes found success and continue to help people today.

Naomi and Marlene on the balcony, Boston. © Nan Goldin 1972.