Trends from the 1980’s have made a resurgence in the last few years, nearly all of which have been unfortunate: tight jeans, legwarmers, huge sunglasses, neon colors, cocaine, and now, censorship of art.
According to “U.S. Representative John Boehner Is Now a Curator,” the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery needs a backbone replacement, evidenced in its recent removal of A Fire in My Belly, a piece of video art by David Wojnarowicz. In response to this utter nonsense, Real Art Ways is currently showing the work in its gallery.
“The Smithsonian has given in to anti-gay bullies,” says Real Art Ways director Will K. Wilkins. “We are presenting this video to enable people to make up their own minds about the work, and about the incident. David Wojnarowicz can’t be here to speak up for himself, but his work has a power, rage and sorrow that is soulful and unforgettable. We are proud to again present his art.”
Real Art Ways is located at 56 Arbor Street in Hartford. The gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday, 2-10 PM; Friday and Saturday 2 PM-11 PM. They are closed on Mondays. Admission to the gallery is free, but donations are accepted.
Richard
Many thanks Kerri for alerting us to this. A big thanks to Will for bringing this important piece of queer art to RAW and standing up against right wing homophobic creeps. One has to love it that even after all these years this piece can still make many demands and suceeds as a great piece of art that still speaks.
Our queer community was truly blessed by the presents that artists like Wojnarowic, Harring, Gonzalez Torres, Hujar,Thek, Mapplethorpe,Saint, Riggs and many more brought to us and to the world of art.
But one must pause and ask, “where has queer art gone?”
Meghan Q
Richard,
Your words are echoed in this article in a New York Times article about the show Hide/Seek, which the piece was originally in…
From the last paragraph:
“Wojnarowicz believed, as have many artists, that the outsider position is a valuable one, and with difference comes responsibilities, resistance to acceptance at any cost being one. The absence of a sense of that resistance in the show is what disappointed me when I first saw the catalog. It deepened with the removal of the video. And it stays with me still.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/arts/design/11hide.html