Monday, 8 March 2010

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  1. peter lewis8 March 2010 at 13:25

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    David Wojnarowicz's Magic Box

    Although the East Village is much less edgier as it is now populated by students and yuppies, a few artists from the older generation still tenaciously claim the territory. Located in the heart of the East Village, the Studio Art department cannot be separate from the context of the downtown New York 1980s art scene despite the complete defacement of the original spirit (we are the force of gentrification). In the oral tradition of the art world, our mentors pass down to us the stories of the village.

    As part of the course 'Visionaries, Saboteurs and Builders," we visited the Fales Library's Downtown Collection to look at the papers of David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992). If we want to talk about East Village in the 80s, Wojnarowicz must be brought up as his work encapsulated poignant themes of his time from queer identity, AIDS, war, violence that spanned the genres of film, installation, painting, photography, drawing, sculpture and music. However, we did not see those works but the handwritten personal journals and correspondences between him and other artist-friends. It felt a bit intrusive to see these personal effects as no space was left between the artist-hero and the voyeurism of the spectators. It was like having Wojnarowicz's brain speak to us posthumously. When Marvin, the archivist opened Wojnarowicz's 'magic box' that he had hid under his bed even from his partner, Tom, the artists's presence pervaded the room along with the smell of musty old objects ranging from currencies from different countries to a Klein-blue toy skull.

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