TELL ME WHY [1991]

Time-based media installation – audio - three channel / photography - Duratran lightboxes (2m X 70cm X 25 cm). Dimensions: variable

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An audio- and photo-based installation that aims to draw an historical lineage between gay politics of the late 60s/early 70s (Stonewall generation) and gay politics around AIDS. The installation presents three 'figures' in the form of free-standing lightboxes who are positioned in a darkened space. Each lightbox has a cliché image of gay men from the cover of gay pulp novel of the late-60s. One speaks about a reconsideration of celibacy, while another speaks about promiscuity all in the context of AIDS. The final figure speaks about disco and a time before AIDS. This work is a means to mourn the generation of gay men who were on the frontline of first wave of the epidemic.

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SHOWN

Wright Art Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles

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Companion work to (TELL ME WHY) THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF DISCO

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TELL ME WHY is part of the DISCO PROJECT about the role that disco played in the formation of gay identity in light of AIDS

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INSTALLATION VIEW: Wright Art Gallery (Los Angeles)