Although he died at the age of 37 due to AIDS complications, David Wojnarowicz left behind a powerful legacy of avant-garde art, passionate LGBTQ+ and disability activism, and resisting friendships – all of which will be commemorated at the AIDS Memorial Park in New York City. To celebrate the groundbreaking artist’s 70th birthday, the NYC AIDS Memorial is teaming up with the David Wojnarowicz Foundation, Visual AIDS and PPOW Gallery for an interdisciplinary commemorative event on Saturday evening, September 14.
The evening starts with a joint theater reading The Waterfront Magazines (1997) – a posthumously published collection of autobiographical fiction stories from the artist’s early career, inspired by the powerful voices he encountered during his chaotic coming of age, written as short monologues. The lecture will be accompanied by a musical performance by the band Rimbaud Hattie, consisting of members of Wojnarowicz’s old band 3 Teens Kill 4: Doug Bressler, Julie Hair and John Kelly.
The NYC AIDS Memorial will also unveil a park bench dedicated to Wojnarowicz, commemorating his fervent activism to end HIV/AIDS stigma from the 1980s until his untimely death in 1992. Afterwards, a candlelight procession will move along the west side of the waterfront to the LGBTQ monument in Hudson River Park.
“At Visual AIDS, we truly value bringing people together to celebrate our history and our spaces, so it is meaningful that the event will end with a procession to the Hudson River waterfront, which has attracted so many queer and AIDS history,” said Kyle Croft, executive director of Visual AIDS, in an email to Hyperallergic.
“Although he and so many other artists were lost before their time, this is an opportunity to meet a rich community of artists who possess so much living history,” said Croft.
Born in New Jersey on September 14, 1954, Wojnarowicz grew up between Long Island and Michigan with his siblings, enduring both neglect and abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father who kidnapped them after separating from their mother. He and his siblings eventually found their mother in New York City and moved in with her in the mid-1960s. Wojnarowicz was used to being unsupervised and left to his own devices. As a young teenager, Wojnarowicz became involved in the city’s seedy, underground counterculture and began turning tricks to support himself while attending the prestigious High School of Music and Art in Manhattan.
The artist left his mother’s apartment and was taken from his home during his late teens, squatting in halfway houses and sleeping while he hustled. He traveled around the country, passing through Paris before returning to the city and finding work as a busboy at the iconic Danceteria nightclub. Dedicated to living on the fringes of society, Wojnarowicz formed 3 Teens Kill 4, documenting the gritty lifestyle of the Lower East Side and becoming involved in developing the alternative art scene that took over the dilapidated piers of Manhattan’s west side – a popular place for gay cruising at that time.
Wojnarowicz worked in a variety of media, from graffiti and street art murals to photography, poetry and writing, assemblage installations and sculpture, film and performance, painting and works on paper. He was known for ignoring conservative ideals and pushing boundaries with sexually explicit motifs. He became known for his activism, both visually and vocally, around the AIDS crisis, after using his portrait for ACT UP’s ‘Silence = Death’ campaign and creating an iconic denim jacket that read: ‘If I die to AIDS, then forget the funeral and drop my life. body on the steps of the FDA.”
His commitment to political activism deepened after the loss of his close friend and mentor, American photographer Peter Hujar, who died of AIDS in 1987. Wojnarowicz learned of his own diagnosis soon after and produced related works of art and literature until his death in 1992.
“Since our dedication in 2016, the New York City AIDS Memorial has been a truly special place to remember and reflect on the ongoing impacts of the AIDS crisis, and we are honored to host this cross-generational gathering of creative energy to David’s life and work,” said Dave Harper, executive director of the Memorial, in an email to Hyperallergic.
The memorial event starts at 5 p.m.
