For the Record: Reception & Steve's Vinyl: Book Launch

Leading up to Day With(out) Art, World AIDS Day, join Visual AIDS and Printed Matter for a reception.

For The Record
fierce pussy
Curated by Risa Puleo
November 23-December 13, 2013
Printed Matter, 195 10th Avenue, NYC
Reception: Saturday, November 30, 5-7 PM
with fierce pussy and Cathy Busby (Steve's Vinyl)

ABOUT
For The Record
A window installation and set of downloadable posters by fierce pussy for Visual AIDS and Day With(out) Art, For The Record, mourns the loss of friends, family, lovers, artists and activists during the AIDS crisis and engages in a dialogue about the erasure of personal and collective memories from the historical record through this loss. Through poignant and powerful variations of the phrase “If he/she/they were alive today…,” fierce pussy explores the daily aspects of living not only with HIV/AIDS, but as a person in the world, and asks viewers to extract their own memories to consider our personal and social relationship to the AIDS crisis in the present.

For the Record, is a new iteration of their 2010 project Get Up Everybody and Sing, originally conceived for the White Columns presentation of the exhibition ACT UP NEW YORK: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987 – 1993 (Carpenter Center of the Arts, Harvard University and White Columns). fierce pussy has continued to engage in a reclaiming of language and public space with installations and exhibitions in galleries and museums.

fierce pussy’s installation at Printed Matter uses the site as a newsstand, a site of information, discourse and exchange to engage in a dialogue about the AIDS crisis past, present and future, displayed the broadsides in Printed Matter’s windows as front pages of the daily news. Take-away versions of the broadside as well as a postcard/ sticker version will also be available at Printed Matter. Find out more about the work of fierce pussy on their website.

Steve’s Vinyl
In 1993 music-loving Steve Busby died of AIDS-related illness, leaving behind a large and eclectic record collection to his sister, artist Cathy Busby. After 18 years of keeping the collection, Cathy orchestrated a performance event, a celebration and album give-away as a way to “activate it, dispersing the albums and turning the weight of this collection into lightness.”

The one-night only event is now a book, Steve’s Vinyl, with writing from Steve and Cathy, photos from the album give-away, and memories of Steve’s albums from their new owners. Like the event itself, the book is a tribute to Steve and his varied tastes in music, men, and identities and a way of activating the collection as music and graphics, and as stimulants of memory and pleasure. It will be on sale at Printed Matter. To learn more about Steve's Vinyl, visit www.cathybusby.com