Crisis Relief

As a curator and writer considering Crisis Relief, I proposed through an open call that Visual AIDS archive of artists answer one or both of the following questions: What do you need in times of crisis? and/or What does crisis relief look like? I wanted to see how this would reveal itself in the artwork and what artists chose to unveil.

I considered: how does crisis—with our environment, ongoing plagues, our health care system, our democracy, homelessness, and the heightened awareness of misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, and stigma—play into our need for Crisis Relief. As a creative expression, how might it appear in an artwork?

I

When thinking of a life in crisis relief, I reflect on Abdul-Aliy A. Muhammad feeling as one with nature in all its natural earthly beauty, while suffering the addenda of medications required to support health in life and living. Brenton Wolf has me realize crisis relief can be worked out in the erupting beauty of an abstract painting. Relief when coagulation takes effect, as nature would have occur rendered in David P. Morrow’s animation. Preserving the precious is necessary in calling attention to Elliott Linwood’s museum preservation of a cradled vessel. I too pleasure in the aroma of a lover’s odor, as an intimate comfort to crisis relief as James K. Fackrell’s collage has me consider. Try living in a Larry Eades landscape painting as a form of meditative relief. Or, in the wonders discovered in a Lucas Michael experiment from a hand that whirls the water in a pool or Michale Zieff reclaiming the beauty from what remains of what might have been lost. Wanting to cuddle with Richard Sawdon Smith suggesting we roleplay. I’m down for that. Waking up to the natural world as in a Steed Taylor photograph. Comforted as Teresa Fabião’s video (seen below) helps us understand new conditions in life and living. Body transformation. Our required surrender to warnings and protocols to save our life illustrated in TRETierny’s collage. Thoughts of complimentary organics and their potential to have me explore crisis relief with the phantasmagoric magic suggested in mushrooms that appear in Thomas Belloff’s painting. All of these artworks having some undercurrent recognizing our primal being in harmony with NATURE. Each of these works had me recognizing the importance of our commune with our planet's ecosystem and what our bodies need to survive and thrive in nature.

II

LOVERS/FAMILY/COMMUNITY survive by our caring. We can never do this alone.

Camila Arce standing comfortably naked with a lover. Kairon Liu’s photo of a patient in a hospital bed should be a necessary humanitarian crisis relief for whoever, whenever, wherever and available to everyone. A crisis can fragment how we know ourselves to be as Carmine Santaniello reminds us. George Dinhaupt’s crisis relief in taking care of others. Intimacy that binds us together. Peter Cramer celebrating Club Lum a propagator of film, art, sex, and THC, his toolkit for crisis relief (click here to experience the full zine celebrating the late artist Charles Lum). J. Hartz shows how we carry the texture of our stories differently. Our need for civil community settlements feature in Jerry Frost’s painting. Supportive care begins where shame ends, tenderly realized in a Kurt Weston drawing. Patrick Webb shows the value in organized training with this choreographed cataclysm castaway. Stiofan O'Ceallaigh has me melding into a loved one, forever a crisis relief. The will to survive and prevail in Susan Paxton artwork informs on creating a homestead for humanitarian concerns in the midst of destruction.

III

When we have to rely on ourselves we need hope wherever we can find it. Spiritual support for our present and future HOPE has me thinking of Monique Gordon and how she reminds us that a homestead is paramount to post-disaster crisis relief. Hugo Moro’s hot spot with an off-the-dirt-floor platform for comfort relief. Jeff VanDyke presents us with an angel for crisis relief. Joe De Hoyos makes organized chaos all fit together like a dj spinning seamless soundscapes. John Carlos Keasler’s mask opens a third eye as a means to see clearly through crisis. Seeing John Hanning’s dayglow yellow crystals charging a cross and Joyce McDonald’s goddess with gold eyelashes have me feeling hopeful. Riss screams “Enough already!” on the edge of crisis, a cry for hope. Leon McCutcheon’s portrait puts forth a leader to step in for hope’s relief. Luis Mario Tavales takes us to find relief in seeing the light of another day. Michael Swank resting in the comfort of your inner self. Angels present themselves as Phyllis Sanfiorenzo’s guardian spirits. Sean Black records a moment of intergenerational sharing and communion for our present and future. Stephen Gemberling provides for us a protector for our spiritual relief.

IV

Most expectantly some would offer ADVICE to assist, deter, or give-up, bringing me to Andrew McPhail’s FUCK IT, the ultimate in crisis relief. Andrew Zealley suggests positive reinforcement toward understanding crisis relief. Living is risky. Carl George’s video (seen below) has me seeing a row of red, white, and blue kites in formation of a U.S. flag messaging “go fly a kite”. Surrender. Blowing your top can work too, as Christopher Murray has me understand—righteous anger. Anthoni Viti’s expressing the underlying never enough of. Ben Cuevas takes on a bigger battle and makes clear what needs to be done. Curtis Carman reminds us how adorning oneself can be a desired activity to honor beauty in the world needing crisis relief. Lawrence Young has me questioning abstinence versus sex addiction as a form of crisis relief. I began to consider a mind’s disorder as a sacred thing as Michael Harwood informs, while thinking of Pedro Padosan’s expressing body contact for the ultimate in crisis relief. Peter J. Robinson Jr. understanding intersectionality and Black masculinity. A refresher course for crisis relief. Roberto Ekholm rings a bell for a cure provided by nature’s world. And lovingly, when all else fails, Shan Kelly suggests we find a pillow. Sometimes the only way to relief.