The White Columns gallery, located on 320 West 13th Street, will probably not attract innocent passersby’s; in fact, it was even able to hide from determined students who had their assignment and a map in hand! The difficulty lies in the gallery’s unassuming exterior, located on a quiet street, the house numbers of which don’t follow in any logical order. And once you find the building, you may attempt to come in through one of the building’s many doors, to which, you will kindly be asked to circle the block to another door (or two) until you come to the gallery’s entrance. Luckily, once inside, there isn’t much chance of getting lost in the 1-2 rooms.
The gallery’s interior is very understated, but this is made up for by the shocking works on display for the “Act Up New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987-1993” exhibit. The presented art gets one’s attention, but is at times vulgar. Though disturbing scenes can be moving at times, the crudeness of this exhibit is not necessary to achieve the goal of awareness. In fact, it risks alienating many visitors with more gentle tastes. The objective had been to open people’s eyes, but it was not taken into consideration that members of modern society are already much more aware of the AIDS crisis than those who had been alive when the displayed posters were first created. Unlike the people who lived in the 80s when AIDS was kept under wraps, the modern gallery visitor is already well aware of the history and continuing consequences of the epidemic. For this reason, the striking images seem painfully forced.
The interviews that are shown on the various screens are probably very insightful, however, because visitors tune in at a random moment in the clip, they must spend a few minutes trying to fill in the many gaps in the conversation, that doesn’t seem meant for them. The speaker is not introduced and the topic can only be assumed from the snippets that you catch. Visitors wander, slightly aimlessly, between the numerous screens, not exactly sure of what they should be doing. The information, that they are able to catch, is interesting. The interviews are conducted with people who were very much involved in the movement for AIDS awareness and their experiences shed much light on the strength and perseverance of the people responsible for bringing about the change.
One can lament the exhibit’s grotesque imagery or lack of organization, but its goal of raising awareness about AIDS seems to rise above these details. Thankfully there are people out there who put their strength into spreading knowledge. And maybe the discontinuity of the exhibit can be taken to symbolize that fragmented nature of the AIDS epidemic. Just as visitors can find themselves lost among the numerous screens and posters, so too were victims lost among the unwelcoming and judgmental faces of society. They were misunderstood and scorned, at the same time, when all they needed was compassion. In the very least, the exhibit is praiseworthy for remembering those lost.
