A Matter of Time; Examining Forty Years of AIDS While Living through a Pandemic
April 8, 2021 – July 18, 2021
Carole A Fewell Gallery, Anthony R. Abraham Family Gallery, and Gallery 109
Curated by Shed Boren, Ph.D., Clinical Assistant Professor, Florida International University, and Yuni Villalonga, Chief Curator, Coral Gables Museum.
Taking a multidisciplinary approach, the exhibition A Matter of Time; Examining Forty Years of AIDS While Living through a Pandemic gathers information on the emergence and development of AIDS, forty years after the first reported case. Myriad publications, videos, ephemera, and documents help audiences understand the phenomenon during the first years of the epidemic from the perspectives of science, public health, and socio-politics. These historical materials range from information on international AIDS conferences and AIDS walks, to the annotations and observations of pioneer CDC researcher, Bill Darrow, featured in the also-included film, “And the Band Played On” (1993). An encompassing selection of AIDS posters from The Wolfsonian-FIU’s collection gives audiences insights into the importance of design in awareness campaigns and illustrates the changes in the social and institutional language. Also on display are ten panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt that feature local, national, and international celebrities, as well as people that will always remain anonymous and yet represent the different segments of the population who died from the epidemic.
The show captures trailblazing efforts to safeguard the artistic heritage of those who died of AIDS. Projects such as the fundraiser “Art Against AIDS” (1987;) the initiative “The Estate Project for Artists with AIDS”; and the exhibitions “What Now?” (1997), and Touched by AIDS (1998,) paved the way for other projects that have been instrumental in granting artists whose lives were cut short by AIDS their due place in art history. Included in the show are works by Carlos Alfonzo, Jon Fernando Brito, Wilfredo Brito, Humberto Dionisio, Fernando Garcia, Juan Gonzalez, Sheldon M. Lurie, Carlos A. Macia, and Adolfo Sanchez. Works by Cesar Trasobares and Yucef Merhi add contemporary takes on the subject matter of the show.
The exhibition is curated by Shed Boren, Ph.D., Clinical Assistant Professor, Florida International University, and Yuneikys Villalonga, Chief Curator, Coral Gables Museum.
Featured Image: AIDS quilt, Washington, D.C. Exhibition, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Carol M. Highsmith [LC-DIG-highsm-13502]
