All Photos By Gail

In Globe of the United States (1990), artist and activist David Wojnarowicz transforms a familiar object into a charged symbol of political and cultural critique. This mixed-media sculpture — a lightbulb-illuminated globe, its surface painted black — abandons the standard cartographic view of the world. Instead, multiple outlines of the United States float across a void of darkness, isolated from any surrounding continents.

The piece feels ominous, even claustrophobic. By repeating the U.S. shape against a black abyss, Wojnarowicz points to a kind of cultural myopia: a nation adrift, detached from the rest of the world. Created during the height of the AIDS crisis — a period when the artist  was speaking out fiercely against government inaction — the work’s stark imagery doubles as a commentary on alienation, neglect, and the erasure of marginalized communities.

Installation View

Known for subverting common visual motifs like maps, flames, and globes, Wojnarowicz infused his art with urgent social critique. *Globe of the United States* continues to feel eerily relevant today, reminding us how national identity can both illuminate and obscure, connect and isolate — often all at once.

Photographed  as Part of the 2018 Retrospective on David Wonjarowicz’s Career, History Keeps Me Awake at Night at the Whitney Museum in NYC.