(Adrian Apollo) Final Project Proposal: The Names Quilt

 

        The AIDS crisis was a period of great loss and destruction that affected the lives of many. The disease itself was brutal, but what was more brutal was the lack of government engagement or involvement in the treatment of this ravaging illness. Thousands fell ill and died, and instead of research being done and drug trials being exercised by government agencies, politicians spoke of a "change in behavior" being the true cure for AIDs. Victims were neglected and left to die without proper care or treatment simply because queer people were demonized, discriminated against, and cast out by general society. This was one of the largest American death tolls that was a direct result of government negligence. 

    The Names Quilt Project gave a voice to those who lost their battle to AIDS. It visually displayed to the world just how immense the death rate of AIDS truly was, and how many people died at the hands of those in power. The documentary, How to Survive a Plague, states it best that the quilt almost "tried to make something beautiful out of the epidemic" but that "there is no beauty in this crisis". The quilt is a visual representation of what the United States presidents have done for AIDS victims. Their responsibility for the deaths of these countless people rings true with each square that lay on the National Mall in Washington D.C. 

    For my final project, I would like to focus on not only how this project was conceived and executed, but the effects it had on AIDS activism as well and what the project as a whole means to accomplish. I would like to investigate how this quilt was made, who's names were involved in the quilts and why, and what efforts went in to preserve the quilt in the present day. Along with this, I would like to reflect upon the protest on Washington that accompanied this quilt and what effects this had on the cause itself. How did this quilt touch the lives of those not affected and affected by AIDS? What affects did this have on those running for Congress at the time in Washington? How did this quilt help compliment the actions and philosophies of ACT UP activists and organizers? Through this data and this research, I hope to understand how large scale community art projects can assist in protest or public activism, as well as understand how such a project can be conceived and executed. 

SOURCES THUS FAR: 

- Common Threads Stories from the Quilt (1989)

- How to Survive a Plague Documentary

- Eaklor's Queer America 

- https://www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt-history 

- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/aids-memorial-quilt-now-online-180975370/ 

- https://digitalprojects.rice.edu/wrc/Houston-LGBTQ/exhibits/show/names-project/names-project-foundation 

- https://www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt 


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