JOHN DI STEFANO
I NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE [1991]
Painted billboard (3m X 7m)
A public art project that juxtaposes two images: the first is a retro image of a man with a disco-ball behind him resembling a halo; the second is the first representation of the AIDS virus on the cover of Scientific American (Jan. 1987). Between both images is the text 'I Never Can Say Goodbye', appropriating the title of Gloria Gaynor's early disco anthem Never Can Say Goodbye. By adding the pronoun 'I', this work becomes a means of mourning a generation of gay men who were on the frontline of first wave of the epidemic.
Commissioned by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) and created by Patrick Media, Los Angeles
SHOWN
Los Angeles (various locations)
Companion work to (TELL ME WHY) THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF DISCO and TELL ME WHY
I NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE is part of the DISCO PROJECT about the role that disco played in the formation of gay identity in light of AIDS