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The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Department of the History of Art summer research grant allowed me to devote time to research the first chapter of my dissertation, which focuses on the work of AIDS activist art collectives. During four research trips to New York, I worked in the Manuscripts and Archives Division of the New York Public Library. The Archives Division maintains several collections central to my research, including the Day Without Art (NYPL) Collection, the Gran Fury Collection, the Royal S. Marks AIDS Activist Video Collection, and the records of the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS. This material has framed my larger project, which addresses how shifting conceptions of sexual, national, and artistic identity have shaped artistic responses to the AIDS crisis in North America. I also examine how these shifting conceptions and responses influenced the work of former collaborative artists like David Wojnarowicz, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, AA Bronson, and Zoe Leonard.
Generally, I am concerned with intersections of personal expression and political activism, and private mourning and public commemoration that emerged from this milieu. By analyzing the relevant Archives Division collections, I have gained clearer insight into the ideas and motives of AIDS activist art collectives, and the social, cultural and political contexts that galvanized the development of these groups.
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