Journal

Visual AIDS publishes essays, interviews, and other writing related to HIV-positive artists and broader cultural histories of HIV and AIDS.

January 30, 2025
João Eduardo Peçanha de Freitas

Fragmented Bodies, Pulverized Lives: The Self-Referential Art of Rafael França

João Eduardo Peçanha de Freitas presents the work of Brazilian artist, Rafael França (1957-1991), who co-founded the artist collective 3NÓS3 and whose practice in the 1980s ushered in a new era of video art in Brazil. He highlights how the legacy of França's work "continues to resonate in our current age of digital personas and fluid identities, offering prescient insights into the fragmented nature of contemporary existence."
October 2, 2024
Karla Vera

Let's Imagine the Cure Together: Positiva Residency

Earlier this year, nine artists from Latin American came together in Quito, Ecuador as part of the second edition of Positiva Residency, organized in collaboration with Quito’s Centro de Arte Contemporáneo (CAC) and MovHIlizate. Karla Vera, a member of the Positiva team, reports on the project.
September 18, 2024
Keiko Lane

Uncovering

Keiko Lane reflects on the artwork of her friend Cory Roberts-Auli (1963–1996), whose collaborative paintings often used blood as an artistic medium. One of these haunting works is featured on the cover of Lane's memoir Blood Loss: A Love Story of AIDS, Activism, and Art, out this week from Duke University Press.
August 8, 2024
Theodore Kerr

Don’t Mourn Consecrate: Talking about Juan González’s historic public art

On October 19, 2023, Theodore Kerr, Leah Sweet, and Nicholas Martin hosted a long table discussion about Juan González’s 1987 installation 'Don’t Mourn Consecrate.' Installed in the storefront windows of the Grey Art Gallery, 'Don’t Mourn' was one of the first public artworks to engage with the AIDS crisis in the US. This transcript documents the discussion, including remarks from six invited presenters as well as audience responses.
August 1, 2024
Teo Pfahler

Pandemic Publications: On AIDS, COVID, and Books

Matteo Pfahler reflects on Pandemics + Books: Publishing HIV/AIDS in the Early COVID Era, an online event from October 2023 that invited authors of HIV-related books with early COVID publication dates to come together and discuss their work, the power of history, and pandemic grief.

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