RADIANT PRESENCE: Day With(out) Art for World AIDS Day

On view in the Jones Center Community Room on Tuesday, December 1, 2015

For this year’s Day With(out) Art, Visual AIDS is working with nine influential artists, activists, and curators—Bill Arning, Ian Alteveer, Chris Vargas, Rae Lewis-Thornton, Mark S. King, Allen Frame, Maria Mejia, Jack Mackenroth, and Kimberly Drew—to present RADIANT PRESENCE.

RADIANT PRESENCE is a digital slideshow with images from Visual AIDS’ Artist+ Registry, the largest database of works by artists with HIV/AIDS, and will be screened continuously in the Jones Center Community Room today during museum open hours.

At this point in the AIDS epidemic, over 39 million people have died of AIDS-related causes. The nature of the crisis has changed, however, so that nearly just as many people, 36 million, are living with HIV today. In this context, RADIANT PRESENCE showcases the resilience and vitality of Visual AIDS’ Artist Members and their artwork, preserving the radiance of those who have passed while provoking dialogue about the needs and experiences of people living with HIV.

RADIANT PRESENCE is inspired by the 25th anniversary of Electric Blanket, an epic slideshow about AIDS created by photographers Nan Goldin, Allen Frame, and Frank Franca for Visual AIDS that intersperses the work of over 200 photographers with slide texts that include demographics, data, and slogans about AIDS worldwide. The slideshow, initially projected on the facade of Cooper Union in New York City on December 1, 1990, was later projected on public walls and buildings internationally.

On/around World AIDS Day on December 1, 2015, RADIANT PRESENCE will reach thousands of viewers through projections, screenings, social media, and programs in museums, art institutions, universities, AIDS service organizations, and online venues.

Artists featured in the slideshow: Stephen Andrews, AZT, Jurgen Baldiga, Bizzy Barefoot, Barton Lidice Beneš, Jaiden Benz, Luis Carle, Walt Cessna, Tseng Kwong Chi, Lucretia Crichlow, Darkroom Danny, Chloe Dzubilo, Brent Nicholson Earle, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Benjamin Fredrickson, Tim Greathouse, Max Greenberg, Carlos Gutierrez-Solana, Veritee Reed Hall, John Hanning, W. Benjamin Incerti, Derek Jackson, Shan Kelley, Kia Labeija, Nancer LeMoins, David McDiarmid, Joyce McDonald, Christabel Millar, Mark Morrisroe, John Nalley, Ray Navarro, Luna Luis Ortiz, Richard Renaldi, Hunter Reynolds, Juan Rivera, Eric Rhein, Jeffrey Scott, Steed Taylor, Hector Toscano, L. Robert Westeen, Jorge Veras, Bruce Volpone, Daniel Williams, Albert Winn, David Wojnarowicz, Lina Yaroslavska