�David Wojnarowicz�s intention is explicitly ideological: his aim is to affect the world at large; he attempts to create imaginary weapons to resist established powers.� - Felix Guattari, 1989
This show presents the work of a select group of contemporary artists that have been the beneficiaries of David Wojnarowicz�s art, writings, and voice. Although it has been sixteen years since his death in 1992, the potency of David�s work and message still reverberates and affects those who come into contact with it. None of these artists knew David Wojnarowicz personally but they all have work that is directly connected to him. The work of these artists is uniquely theirs, but all of them are bound by the influence David has had on them, each in their own specific way. This is not a memorial, this is not a re-iteration or duplication, this is an exhibition that brings artists from different countries, backgrounds and aesthetics to a single space to show how the work and life of David Wojnarowicz continues to inform artists today.
�My paintings are my own written versions of history, which I don�t look at as being linear. I don�t obey the time elements of history or space and distance or whatever; I fuse them all together. For me, it gives me strength to make things, it gives me strength to offer proof of my existence in this form. I think anybody who is impoverished in any way, whether psychically or physically, tends to want to build rather than destroy.� - David Wojnarowicz 1989 in an interview with Barry Blinderman
David Wojnarowicz was born in 1954 in New Jersey and died of AIDS in 1992. He was a leading artist in New York�s Lower East Side art movement during the 1980s and was a vocal activist against homophobia and AIDS discrimination. After his diagnosis in 1988 David became more involved in activism, especially with ACT UP. He brought his fight for freedom of expression all the way to the Supreme Court in Wojnarowicz v. American Family Association in which Donald E. Wildmon misused David�s work in an attempt to show that it was pornographic and against family values. David won this case and was awarded a symbolic $1.00. David was a multi-disciplinary artist who used photography, painting, collage, sculpture and film to visually present social and political issues. Many of these issues overlapped with his writings, which were numerous. Titles of his writings include, Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration; Memories That Smell Like Gasoline and The Waterfront Journals. From the beginning his art making was deeply collaborative with fellow artists; whether it be at the piers, in galleries, or in films and music, these collaborations were constant and essential in developing his artistic skill, vocabulary and impact.
In connection with the exhibition, P.P.O.W. will host a reading by writers that count David Wojnarowicz and his coterie among their influences. The readers will be Zachary German, Amy King, Sara Marcus and Max Steele. Wojnarowicz�s work emerged from a city that seems to no longer exist, exhibiting an urgency of response that has all but dissipated. Having never known him, these readers look to Wojnarowicz�s work as a model of political fury, might see him as an emissary from another place and time. Doubling as bloggers, educators, performers, curators, and students, they chart different courses through a wildly different climate. There may be a genealogy of David Wojnarowicz, but it is all too queer�one where, in Wojnarowicz�s words, �conception�s just a shot in the dark.�
Zachary German was born in 1988 in Somers Point, New Jersey. He maintains a blog, "every time a police officer gets shot i throw a party," and a biweekly poetry magazine, "the name of this band is the talking heads." He is working on his first novel. He lives in Brooklyn
Amy King is the author of I'm the Man Who Loves You and Antidotes for an Alibi, both from Blazevox Books, and most recently, Kiss Me With the Mouth of Your Country (Dusie Press). She is the moderator for the Poetics List and the Women's Poetry Listserv, and teaches English and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College. She is currently editing an anthology, The Urban Poetic, forthcoming from Factory School. Please visit www.amyking.org for more
Sara Marcus's poetry and prose appear in Encyclopedia, Tantalum, EOAGH, The Advocate, The Forward, Time Out New York, and Heeb, where she was politics editor from 2002 to 2007. She is writing a book about punk rock and feminism; other work is forthcoming in The Art of Touring (Yeti Press, 2008), The Believer, and two chapbooks, one from Felt Press and one produced in collaboration with visual artist Tara Jane Oneil. Marcus's catalogue essay for "Regrade," sculptor Wade Kavanaugh's solo exhibition at Suyama Space in Seattle, will be published in September 2008. She curates the series QT: Queer Readings at Dixon Place, copyedits at Artforum, and plays in the folk-rock band Luxton Lake
Max Steele is a performer, writer and artist. His zine, Scorcher, has been excerpted internationally, and his performance work with his band, Max Steele and the Party Ice, has toured the west coast. He is from California and now lives in Brooklyn.
Special thanks to Fales Library for their film archives.
Fear of Disclosure, Phil Zwickler,1989-1994. Started in1989 by Phil Zwickler, this four film series explores issues of having HIV in different communities. The first video with David Wojnarowicz examines the difficulties of revealing HIV status for gay men.
Fire in My Belly (A work in Progress), directed by David Wojnarowicz, 1986-87, 13 minutes, silent. This unfinished work by Wojnarowicz contains a montage of his iconic images mostly gathered from his trips to Mexico.
Heroin, directed by David Wojnarowicz, 1981, 4 minutes, silent. This film is one of the few Wojnarowicz� films that are complete and it depicts the adverse use of heroin in New York City.
Manhattan Love Suicides, directed by Richard Kern, 1985, 10 minutes, black and white. A film that David starred in with William Rice, Robin Renzi, Montanna Houston, about a fan who follows an artist and has his advances unrequited.
