Adrian Apollo Week 1 Exhibition Work plan, Source #1

 Source #1: Naming Names: The Art of Memory and the NAMES Project AIDS Quilt, written by Peter S Hawkins, published by University of Chicago Press

Some things I took note of:

    - the action of recalling a deceased person's name here in the means of the quilt, or repeating their name, is meant to conjure them up, allow them to live on, honor them, dignity to the dead, Speak to dead, leave offerings and messages, name is a medium of communication to the other world, quilt is medium to speak to the dead

- similarities between the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., names themselves are the memorial

    - Cleve Jones (founder of quilt) wanted to demonstrate the tremendous loss that occurred because of the AIDS crisis, evoke numbing sense of loss like Vietnam Veterans Memorial

    - Patchwork quilt for Jones reminded him of one his family had used to comfort those that were ill or housebound, quilt project meant to be public metaphor, represents coziness comfort warmth and humanity, family loyalty, given as gift, passed down through generations, sign of national unity, cozy humane and warm (e pluribis unum) 

    - Quilts represent America itself, map of American life, quilt linked to 19th century sewing bees, nostalgia for past sense of community, American flag, needlework of Betsy Ross (Fabric, color and patterns), quilt aesthetic and American identity , Bicentennial quilt each state, senior citizen groups, school children, ethnic groups, 1984 survey that 14 million Americans made, bought, sold, or had something to do with a quilt in their lives, emphasis on America in hopes that it would be a unionizing effort against AIDS, national tragedy=national response, No religious inclusion to explain or justify this loss, show how the AIDS epidemic created a diverse community built on responsibility and commitment, queer family, Deliberately adopt symbols and vocabulary that were not threatening to people who were not gay- Cleve Jones, America has AIDS not just gay people

    - First panel of quilt made for Jones best friend, late February 1987, Marvin Feldman, spray painted name on white sheet, 3’6 feet size of grave, abstract design of 5 stars of david, pink red triangle, tombstone and quilt patch, model for improvised handiwork of others to come, all quilt panels after were up to quilters, Jones had no aesthetic involvement in it, natural for those creating it

    - NAMES project formally organized June 21st 1987, went public one week later when first 40 panels were displayed in San Francisco’s Lesbian and Gay Freedom Day Parade, National coverage came with an Associated Press feature story in August when 400 panels had been received

    - 2 months later in October 1987, NAMES Project Quilt displayed on the mall in Washington DC ( near Vietnam Veterans Memorial) as part of National March for Lesbian and Gay rights

    - 2000 panels, covered rectangular area the size of two football fields, between Washington Monument and the Capitol

    - 1988: more than 8000 panels, huge polygon just behind White House on ellipse

1989: 10,000 laid out in a square 

October 1992: 20,000 squares, additional sixteen hundred brought to site for last minute inclusion 

    -Denounce country’s indifference to AIDS epidemic due to ignorance fear and greed, rally for research and treatment, suffer intimate loss in public space, naming of names, sight and sound of names, names=memorial, occasion for vigil and song 

    -Quilt keeps growing as losses keep growing too from AIDS, reality we have little control over, quilt is not entire death toll which speaks volumes

    - Some materials used: old shirts, ties, teddy bears, crushed beer cans,, merit badges, credit cards, photographs, computer-generated images, leather, lame, wedding rings, cremation ashes, Personal souvenirs are incorporated into the quilt, “snapshots of the soul”

    -Many juxtapositions present among quilt panels, no clear or conventional response, cry, laugh, do whatever you need to do to consume the reality of the situation

    -Fabric as opposed to granite or stone, cloth fades and frays, fragile, needs constant mending, “material life”, soft monument made at home to remember people, no engineers, No mention of craft that is traditionally led and practiced by women, quilting to name names and remember people, American heritage, domesticate AIDS, neutralize hostitlity towards at risk people by appealing to national legacy

    -mostly work and efforts of gay men and women both gay and straight, people who lost their loved ones, people getting ready to die from AIDS on their own time

    - Controversy with some queer people and activists, too much of a focus on the dead and no attention to those still alive and at risk, some find it “too tearful”, Grief and militancy, “real queers don’t quilt they act up”, tears don’t fix the AIDS crisis, androgynous sisterhood vs gay brotherhood, quilt= psychic work or mourning, Memorial to dying subculture, only accept gay people when they are dying and in “family sewing circle” (pg 772 footnote 30)

    - Roger Lyon panel: August 2 1983 Congress testimony, "I came here today to ask that this nation, with all its resources and compassion, not let my epitaph read, 'He died of red tape.' "32 The point here is not to weep; rather, panels become platforms, the record of voices raised in a forum where the dead can still have their say.

    -  Link between a war we did not win, an epidemic we cannot cure, and a gov that has not developed an AIDS policy or support, evidence of disaster to the very people who are responsible for it- Cleve Jones

    - quilt includes panels from different countries, 20 foreign chapters for quilt project

    - 1988 Lincoln Memorial speech by Jones: wartime response to AIDS, rise as nation, compare this loss to losses in war (like Southeast Asia war pg 777) demanding action from Congress, indifference to AIDS belongs to Washington not America

    - Who gets to be remembered and by who? NAMES project wanted to go bigger than just Castro Street and Fire Island, but most involved in the quilt are mostly middle class and white, project includes a lot of ordinary people with no known name for themselves, not everyone is included, make peoples intimate realities public like that of Michael Foucault or Roy Cohn, mark infant who died of AIDS or a complete stranger to person making their quilt square, quilt depends on people who value the life of a random stranger

    - Pg 778, 35. See "C," pp. 87-89, for the gap between different efforts of the white gay commu- nity (whether the NAMES Project or Act Up) and communities of color. Sturken notes that most organizations struggling to deal with AIDS in inner-city black and Latino com- munities do not have the energy or resources to involve themselves in quilting. Is it a privilege to be able to mourn in the middle of an epidemic? The quilt's display and cre- ation are both grassroots-defined; the quilt only travels to those communities that can raise the money to sponsor it.

    - Some did not involve themselves because they are alienated from this notion of “America”/America in general, respect the real or imagined wishes of the dead, for some its too sanitized to do justice for gay reality, not enough female or children representation, too involved with Castro Street to appeal to inner city AIDS populations 

Visual Components of this article I want to incorporate:

- pg 761, overall shape and mass amount of footage covered by quilt

- pg 773, John Booth's quilt square, quilt explanation on pg 771

- pg 775, Jac Wall's square

overall: synthesize key points here, what shows the power of the quilt, what shows the controversy behind the quilt, paint an entire picture of how it was executed and why, what did this insight within other people