VAVA VOOM

The 11th Annual Visual AIDS Vanguard Awards & Spring Gala

Honoring:

GREGG BORDOWITZ

“Visual AIDS supports artists with HIV like me, who are survivors.I’m going to talk a little bit about what it means to be a survivor, largely because I’m trying to figure it out and usually it helps to do that in public, or at least, I have the perverse idea that it helps to do that in public. Many or most of us are survivors, [but] I’m talking specifically about surviving HIV. Many of us have survived many, too many things to list here, but most of you know what I’m talking about-- when in the periphery of your vision, you see someone somewhat familiar, or you hear that laugh behind you, and you turn and you think its somebody who hasn’t been around for like, twenty or thirty years-- that happens to me all the time, and that kind of experience doesn’t go away. There is a tremendous amount of pleasure in being alive, still being alive, still being sensitive, and being able to touch the world and have the world touch you: but as I talked about before, there’s also a kind of inconceivable and perpetual pain involved, even in this, I’m sorry to admit. I’m grateful, I’m really grateful: to all of you and especially to Visual AIDS, and to many of you in the room who I love dearly. But there’s so many people, too many to mention, who I wish were here tonight, and I think its always going to be that way.” - GB

GLENN LIGON

“Recently, I heard a discussion with Claudia Rankine talking about her book “Citizen”, and she said, commenting on the spectacle of black bodies lying in the street after police killings, “If the condition of black lives is a condition of mourning, how do we get that grief to become a national grief, and not one only held in the black body?” And when I think about Claudia’s statement, I think about it in relationship to the work that Visual AIDS has done, and I realize that Visual AIDS has always been about turning a community’s grief into a national grief, with programs like Day Without Art, The Artists + Registry and Archive, the discussion of Duets that Steven and Gregg did, and monographs on Hugh Steers and Robert Blanchon. Visual AIDS has helped turn grief and memorializing in our communities into national grief and memorializing. It’s helped make anger in our communities into a national anger, and it’s turned activism that started in our communities into a nationwide activism. So Visual AIDS started in response to a crisis, and I think your presence here is a testament to the work it’s done for many decades, and the work it’ll continue to do.” - GL

JESSICA WHITBREAD

“Love Positive Women was just this crazy idea that I had. I was like, “You know what? We need a holiday.” So then, it just kind of happened. And it’s kind of amazing, because last year, one hundred and forty organizations and groups participated around the world, including The WHO, The International AIDS Society, and a lot of other people: The Global Network of Sex Worker Projects. And Visual AIDS-- because we talked about the national work that happens-- was always very supportive of Love Positive Women. Two years ago we started -- in partnership with fire island and other folks—to work with artists and women living with HIV in NYC to make a lot of Positive Women cards and send them to women living with HIV all around the world. The first year, there was 150 and we couldn’t even make that many. Because it was such an amazing idea, people started to replicate, and this year different groups picked it up and there was over a thousand that were sent out, which is really incredible. And they went, but there’s all these other things: like there was a group of gay men in Australia who were asking Pos women out on dates. There was a woman in Malaysia, she took the children of women living with HIV in prisons to go and visit them, for love positive women. And you know this happens-- these cards went to Turkmenistan, Lebanon, Uzbekistan, China, Philippines, the US-- so the reach that Visual AIDS has been having is enormous." - JW

Presenters: Stephen Andrews and Kia Labeija

Hosts & DJs AndrewAndrew

Performances by:

Ana Matronic and Martha Wash

COCKTAILS & DINNER

ART AUCTION & RAFFLE

The Visual AIDS Vanguard Awards (VAVA) recognize the contributions of individuals who reinforce the mission of Visual AIDS by strengthening the cultural history of art activism and AIDS advocacy.

For more images and to read about the evening's celebration, visit our blog here

THANK YOU

Event photos (above) by Steven Rosen Photography

Additional photos by Photomatonchic

Visual AIDS utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.

Founded in 1988, Visual AIDS is the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to raising AIDS awareness and creating dialogue around HIV issues today, by producing and presenting visual art projects, exhibitions, public forums and publications - while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS. We are committed to preserving and honoring the work of artists with HIV/AIDS and the artistic contributions of the AIDS movement.