Welcome! Over the next few months, this blog will journal my experiences interviewing several Gran Fury members, as well as NYU staff who collaborated to present the collective's retrospective last fall at the Steinhardt Gallery, "Gran Fury: Read My Lips." These interviews and four original essays will compose my master's thesis: "Creating and Re-Creating AIDS Activist Art: The Biography of the Gran Fury Poster."
The project is two-fold: first, it aims to look at the specifics of "making" involved in creating the group's original work and their experiences; second, I look at the digital re-creation involved in making copies and enlargements for the exhibition. At the very heart of the project, there is a question of the preciosity of art objects - in this case, activist art that was designed to be temporal. I also ask how the role of the Gran Fury poster has changed - is the message still powerful and relevant? Is the poster medium outdated by modern technology?
All of these themes will be explored and debated in one-on-one interviews, sections of which I'll post here. If you have any questions about the project or are interested in reading full transcriptions of the interviews, feel free to email me at summerson.karen@gmail.com
*All interviewees have agreed to online and print publication.
**All pictures, unless otherwise noted, are courtesy of Joseph Mondello
Very cool! Please post more posters!
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