Tag Archives: David Wojnarowicz

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: The Death of American Spiritualty by David Wojnarowicz

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death of american spiritualty photo by gail worley
Photo By Gail

The Death of American Spiritualty (1987) by David Wojnarowicz (1954 – 1992) contains a number of the artist’s recurring symbols and imagery densely layered in a single composition. With its radically juxtaposed motifs that suggest different temporalities — from geological landforms to emblems of the American West and the Industrial Revolution — the mythical tableau depicts destruction proliferating alongside technological advancement and geographic conquest.

Photographed in The Whitney Museum in NYC.

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: David Wojnarowicz, Bread Sculpture

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Bread Sculpture
All Photos By Gail

David Wojnarowicz (1954 – 1992) used red string as a material throughout his practice. From his early supermarket posters to the flower paintings, he stitched red string into the surface of his compositions to suggest the seams and irreconcilable breaks in culture. In his unfinished film, A Fire In MY Belly (1986 – 87), Wojnarowicz included footage of the stitching together of a broken loaf of bread. This sculpture is a physical manifestation of that earlier idea.  The film also included footage of what appeared to be a man’s lips being sewn together. A version of that image by Andreas Sterzing — featuring Wojnarowicz himself — would become one of the most galvanizing images to come out of the AIDS crisis.

Photographed as Part of the Exhibit, History Keeps Me Awake at Night, at The Whitney Musuem.

Bread Sculpture

 

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: David Wojnarowicz, Untitled (Face in The Dirt)

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Face in The Dirt
Photo By Gail

This photograph of artist David Wojnarowicz (1954 – 1992) was taken in late May of 1991 at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico while Wojnarowicz and his friend Marion Scemama took a road trip around the American Southwest. Cynthia Carr, the artist’s biographer, describes how the photograph came to be:

David had been there before and he knew exactly where he wanted stage this. “We’re going to dig a hole,” he told her, “and I’m going to lie down.” They began digging without saying word, a hole for his upper body and a bit for his legs. They used their hands. The dirt was loose and dry. He lay down and closed his eyes. Marion put dirt around his face until it was halfway up his cheeks and then stood over him, photographing his half-buried face first with his camera and then with hers.

This image was also licensed for use as the cover art for the soundtrack recording of the 1995 film, Postcards From America.

Photographed as Part of the Exhibit History Keeps Me Awake at Night, on View Through September 30th, 2018 at the Whitney Museum in NYC.

 

 

 

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: David Wojnarowicz, The Newspaper as National Voodoo: A Brief History of the U.S.A.

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The Newspaper as National Voodoo
Photo By Gail

During his short but prolific career, David Wojnarowicz worked in writing, painting, photography, film, music, performance and installation. Unapologetically making art about homosexuality during the peak of the AIDS crisis in New York, Wojnarowicz exposed the marginalization and suppression of a stigmatized community.

As a self-taught artist, Wojnarowicz created an iconography that is at once personal and universal. His work as an artist is inseparable from his work as an activist, in which he aimed to bring awareness to that which was made invisible, namely homosexuality.

David Wojnarowicz died from AIDS in his Manhattan home on the night of July 22, 1992. More than 20 years after his untimely death, Wojnarowicz’s work continues to elicit strong reactions and provoke censorship. His work has served as an inspiration to many artists, including Zoe Leonard, Victoria Yee Howe, Matt Wolf, Emily Roysdon, Henrik Olesen, Mike Estabrook, and Carrie Mae Weems.

David Wojnarowicz, The Newspaper as National Voodoo: A Brief History of the U.S.A. (1986) was Photographed in The Broad Museum in Downtown Los Angeles.