VOICE = Survival
June 15 through August 11, 2017
LJ Roberts, Portrait of Deb from 1988-199?, detail, 2012-13. Courtesy of the artist. [Image Description: A detail photograph of numerous embroidered fabric patches on a white background, surrounded by various color threads. On the left is a rectangular pink patch with a black border that reads “Warrior Princess Dyke” in cursive at the center. The largest patch is a rectangle, horizontally segmented: the top half displays a pink triangle pointed upwards followed by the words “Action=Life” in black text on a white background and the bottom half features the words “Silence=Death” in white text on a black background, followed by a pink triangle pointed downwards. Other patches feature phrases such as “Clit Power,” “Stop the Church,” and “Just Wear It!”
VOICE = SURVIVAL, an exhibition curated by Claudia Maria Carrera and Adrian Geraldo Saldaña for Visual AIDS, examines voice as a medium and a metaphor used by artists and activists confronting oppression amid the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic. The multidisciplinary exhibition features work and archival materials by ACT UP, Jordan Arseneault and PosterVirus, yann beauvais, Mykki Blanco and Adinah Dancyger, Chloe Dzubilo, Gran Fury, Andrea Geyer and Sharon Hayes, Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Gustavo Vazquez, Shan Kelley, Audre Lorde, Donald Moffett, Pat Parker, Bob Rafsky, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Marlon Riggs, LJ Roberts, James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook, Vito Russo, Kiki Smith, Ultra-red, Rosa von Praunheim, and David Wojnarowicz. The exhibition will be on view from June 15 through August 11, 2017 at The 8th Floor.
Claudia Maria Carrera is a doctoral student and graduate instructor in the Department of Music at NYU working in sound studies, media studies, and performance studies. The exhibition VOICE = SURVIVAL grew out of her dissertation research, which examines the mobilization of the voice as a medium and a metaphor in the early years of the NYC AIDS crisis as a queer survival practice. At NYU, Carrera has co-curated the Music Department Colloquium Series and has served as a shop steward and unit representative for GSOC-UAW 2110, the first graduate employee union at a private university in the U.S. She has also worked as a stage director for theater and opera, including as a Resident Artist Director for the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, and has written about music, arts, and culture for Capital NY and for the Tanglewood Music Festival, where she served as a Publications Fellow. Carrera lives in Astoria, Queens and holds degrees from NYU and Princeton University.
Adrian Geraldo Saldaña curated numerous exhibitions and public programs while working at the Abrons Arts Center of Henry Street Settlement and a Project Booth at NADA New York 2014. He served as a Fellow in NYFA’s Emerging Leaders Boot Camp and a Prevention Justice Fellow in the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP). Saldaña has also worked at the Streetwork Project LES, a needle exchange program serving homeless and street-based youth, and the Harm Reduction Coalition, a national organization founded by needle exchange providers, advocates and drug users. He was a member of Queer Fist, a radical queer collective formed to disrupt the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City. He holds a Master of Public Administration from the NYU Wagner School of Public Service. Originally from Houston, TX, Saldaña lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Visual AIDS is the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to HIV prevention and AIDS awareness through producing and presenting visual art projects, while supporting artists living with HIV/AIDS. Visual AIDS is committed to preserving and honoring the work of artists with HIV/AIDS and the artistic contributions of the AIDS movement. Capturing critical and audience acclaim, Visual AIDS’ art exhibitions examine the deep cultural history of the AIDS crisis and contemporary issues around HIV/AIDS today. Exhibitions are organized by guest curators and feature a range of emerging, international and HIV+ artists. VOICE = SURVIVAL was selected for The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation exhibition from a competitive call for proposals.
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Installation views of “Voice=Survival” at The 8th Floor, June 2017. Photos by Julia Gillard. Courtesy of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.