Sunday, February 5, 2017

Identity - Gender: David Wojnarowicz

Mariah Fox
Wojnarowicz was born in 1954 in Red Bank New Jersey. He had a difficult childhood, his family life was filled with abuse, as well as coming into his own and defining himself and accepting his homosexuality. At the age of 16 he dropped out of high school and started living on the streets, he hitchhiked around the USA and even went to Paris for a couple of months. In 1978, Wojnarowicz finally settled in the East Village of NYC. Sadly in the late 80's he was diagnosed with AIDS. He passed away in 1992 at the age of 37.


His work is greatly influenced by his life past, present and even future. From tackling his abusive past, into coming into his own in the East Village, to the idea of battling his mortality after his AIDS diagnosis. He uses a variety of different mediums to discuss the issues he is working with. I found Wojnarowicz's work is fearless and powerful. In his life with his work he fought as a political activist for the rights of the arts community, as well as the LGBTQ community. His work focuses mainly on his sexual identity and how that shaped his life. As well as the voices of others who were deemed outcasts by society.


The Weight of the Earth, Part I & II (1998) - Is a series of black and white photographs that incorporated the voices of people he met on his travels, while hitchhiking that had been ostracised by or labeled as outcasts by society. I feel this links to his main themes of sexual identity because at the time homosexuality was still taboo and shunned in most minds and households, even though it was becoming more prominent in the world. It feels like almost a collaboration between Wojnarowicz and the people he met. (Which I found to be interesting and a nice avenue to take when thinking about making work. It allows more than one voice to be incorporated which I think is important especially for the issues Wojnoarowicz is discussing in his work. He speaks for the "underdogs" of the time, specifically the LGBTQ community. So while he himself is a first hand experiencer of the situation at the time, there are most voices and different perspectives that can add to his work. This shows a unity in the people society shuns and helps illustrate the community.)

I found this quote from visualaids.org that said, "he had, in his own words, 'started developing ideas of making and preserving an authentic version of history in the form of images/writing/objects that would contest state-supported forms of 'history.' " He was constantly battling with the opposing side of things through out his career.
Another quote I found from him was from interviewmagazine.com on how he handled a rejection from a gallery/exhibition, "I'm in the throes of facing my own mortality and in attempting to communicate what I'm expressing or learning in order to try and help others I am effectively silenced. I am angry." This links to this contemporary example of how even today his work is cause for controversy.

In 2010 his art came back into the limelight with the controversial video A Fire in My Belly where Mexican fire ants were crawling around and over a crucifix. It was promptly removed from the Smithsonian after the protests by the Catholic League. I thought it was interesting how even today his work is still causing an uproar to people who don't understand his work.

His work is powerful and inspiring. His use of many mediums is wonderful to see, because I can relate. I too enjoy working with different mediums and so even though my works doesn't relate directly to his I still feel I can connect to him with his use of different mediums.

Website:
Because he died in 1992 his website is not his own. He doesn't even truly seem to have a website that is the entirety of his whole works. However the PPOW gallery has created an Estate of the highlights of his works along with a detailed breakdown of his accomplishments and exhibitions. It is a clean and crisp layout that focuses it's attention on his work. There are no frivolous bells and whistles to the site which is nice to see. I enjoyed that the biography section gives a detailed list of his career. The past exhibitions of his work in a contemporary setting. I also found to be successful, each photo you clicked went to a different page giving you more information about the exhibit he was featured in. As well as some images that were featured in the exhibits.

I do wish that the website had more of his work to show, but the google images search allowed for more images of his work. That however, I found to be frustrating. I like when I can see all of the artists work all at once on one website. Sadly, since Wojnarowicz didn't make his own website that's out of everyone control.

The google search did a good job of creating sub-search categories breaking up his work into photography, painting, etc. Which was a nice way to navigate through his work.

My questions:
Do you feel that the controversial works of artists (past and present) should still be subject to censorship in this day and age?
Do you yourself incorporate different mediums into your work?

I also wanted to add the video of The Fire in my Belly that was removed from the Smithsonian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHRCwQeKCuo







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