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accustomed to finding it..." articulates member Avram
Finkelstein, catches the viewer off guard, revealing a new vocabulary and a new perspective on the AIDS health crisis. In Heywood's "The Crime of Being Posi+ive", a person can be charged under the HIV Assault Act regardless of whether or not he or she infected or intended to infect another with HIV. In 1989, nine states had AIDS/HIV criminal laws, but by 2013, 32 states had these types of laws in place. Some legislatures believe that these laws are outdated since there were so many misconceived notions in the 1980s and "there was a general belief that this was potentially an epidemic that was going to spread into the general population, that was sort of a guaranteed death sentence, that was extremely transmissible." An example of a work that provokes curiosity is their public intervention project where they swapped copies of
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we steer the art world projects into public spaces so that we can address audiences other than museum-going audiences or the readership of art magazines." By the mid-1990s, Gran Fury found it hard to make simple works surrounding the AIDS pandemic, and started using more text - a necessity that made it hard for the group to relay messages as effectively as before. Gran Fury's final piece was entitled "Good Luck... Miss You, Gran Fury", and was produced in 1995, a year before the death of member Mark
Simpson. In the piece, presented at the New Museum, Gran Fury stated that the original agitprop art strategies they were using were ‘unable to communicate the complexities of AIDS issues'.
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238:'s policy toward sex and contraception. A week prior, Giovanni Carandente, the event's director of visual arts, said they considered excluding the poster. They told the Aperto's selection committee that they considered it to be blasphemous. Aggravating the problem was its proximity to a Gran Fury poster featuring a photograph of an erect penis (an image that would have caused more of a storm in the United States than a poster of the Pope). By Thursday, Mr. Carandente apparently reconsidered, and the posters were hanging at the Aperto. But on Saturday, the
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were of varying races, sexual orientation, and genders, kissing below the line, "Kissing Doesn't Kill: Greed and
Indifference Do." Within a year, the poster was found on buses and subway platforms in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Washington, DC. With the presentation of this piece, Gran Fury began to distance itself from ACT UP's general membership, eventually organizing themselves as a closed group.
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organized as an autonomous collective, describing themselves as a "...band of individuals united in anger and dedicated to exploiting the power of art to end the AIDS crisis." The contribution of recycling historical images of homoerotic pleasure contributed to the pictorial landscape of the AIDS activist movement. Recycling the title of the
Plymouth sedan used by
184:—posited as AIDS criminals and set against a mural-sized photograph of the Nuremberg trials. Concrete slabs positioned under each figure offered evidence of their crimes, from misrepresentations of AIDS to ignoring the issue altogether as in the case of Reagan's notorious public silence, in the form of personal quotes. One reacted, for example, to a 1986
156:, invited ACTUP to make an installation in "...the window by the museum entrance on Broadway". A neon SILENCE=DEATH symbol crowned the display, with a pink triangle below. The pink triangle was appropriated from the Nazi marker for gay men imprisoned at death camps furthering the analogy between the AIDS crisis and the
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included, "Kissing Doesn't Kill", "Welcome to
America", and "Women Don't Get Aids", reproduced in large-scale mural formats. There were also projections of "Kissing Doesn't Kills" video public service announcements, and several give-aways including "Men use Condoms" stickers in an edition of 3000 and
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The first high-stakes opportunity for Gran Fury came as part of a public-art project called "Art
Against AIDS/On the Road" in 1989. As part of the project, Gran Fury presented a poster showing three couples, of which two featured Gran Fury members Mark Simpson and Robert Vazquez-Pacheco. The couples
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language and use of various materials including: fliers, posters, stickers, T-shirts, billboards, photographs and postcards, simultaneously produced provocative, informative, stylish, political and satirical public projects. By placing "...political information into environments where people are less
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in a more practical, open way, as well as to inform the public on the importance of safer sex and clean needles. When asked about their approach of their work, Gran Fury said: "We want the art world to recognize that collective direct action will bring an end to the AIDS crisis. ... Whenever we can,
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Gran Fury purposefully intervened into public and advertising spaces to disrupt the flow of normal thoughts with their own agenda. Notably, most of their work was directly exhibited to the public outside of traditional art spaces through fliers, posters, and billboards. They often recycled their own
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writes, "nscribed within the group's name...both a subjective experience (rage) and a tool of State power (police squad cars)," referencing "both an internal sensation and an external force". Action, not art, was the aim of the collective. Producing posters and agitprop in alliance with ACT UP to
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report on the piece wrote "In fact, much of the talk about the Aperto among the hundreds of artists, curators, dealers and critics who have converged on this city during the last week has focused on two entries from the United States that have stirred interest more for their apparent capacity to
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The participation of "visual artists in ACT UP and other collectives was essential to the effectiveness of the campaigns of protest, education and awareness about AIDS." The collective mutually disbanded in 1995, a year prior to Mark
Simpson's death on November 10, 1996, from AIDS. Gran Fury
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Gran Fury's appropriation of "...commercial language for political ends became the hallmark of the artists involved." By re-purposing, reframing and re-circulating images to underscore their political agenda, Gran Fury was able to reach a plurality of identities and communities. AIDS does not
160:. The neon piece became part of the New Museum's permanent collection, and the SILENCE = DEATH graphic was widely disseminated through T-shirts, wheatpastes, and other printed ephemera. The graphic was a reaction to a 1985 editorial in
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The exhibition consisted of 15 pieces, most of which were re-created by Gran Fury from archival documentation. The show was accompanied by an 88-page catalogue, which was the first publication devoted to the group's production.
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discriminate, so there was an urgency to circulate information about this disease to the masses. Gran Fury member Loring McAplin observed the collectives mass-market ambition to "...fight for attention as hard as
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with a text about the church's anti-safe-sex rhetoric; the other a two-foot-high erect penis with texts about women and condom use." Typical of media indifference to the underlying issue, a May 28
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Decter, Joshua. "Infect the Public Domain with an
Imagevirus: General Idea's AIDS Project." Afterall: A Journal of Art, Context and Enquiry. Spring-Summer 2007
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entry is the first. The other, and for political reasons more important, is a set of posters by Gran Fury, a collective dedicated to issues involving
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should be tattooed in the upper forearm, to protect common-needle users, and on the buttocks, to protect the victimization of other homosexuals."
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395:"Conversation with Helen Molesworth and Gran Fury Members: Avram Finkelstein, Tom Kalin, Marlene McCarty, Robert Vazquez-Pacheco"
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This graphic was one of many created by Gran Fury in response to the lack of awareness regarding the AIDS pandemic.
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The New York Public
Library – Humanities and Social Sciences Library – Manuscripts and Archives Division
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Bottinelli, Silva (November 25, 2015). "Act Up New York: Activism, Art and the Aids Crisis, 1987-1993".
215:, a.k.a. the "Pope Piece": "The artwork paired two billboard-sized panels: one coupled the image of the
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was reportedly deliberating about whether to ask the
Italian Government to have the posters removed."
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editorial by notorious arch-conservative William Buckley, who proposed that all persons with AIDS "...
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2013, Heywood, Todd A., "The Crime of Being Posi+ive," "Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost."
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In April 2022, Bold Type Books published a history of Gran Fury by Jack Lowery entitled,
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written by William F. Buckley as well as the silence by the Reagan government. Entitled
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Outlaw Representation: Censorship & Homosexuality in Twentieth Century American Art
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It Was Vulgar & It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic
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It Was Vulgar & It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic
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in coin-operated dispensers with their own The New York Crimes which resembled "...
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Creating and Re-creating AIDS Activist Art: The Biography of the Gran Fury Poster
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From January to March 2012, the 80 WSE gallery at NYU presented the exhibition,
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fights for attention." Before social media, the collective's appropriation of
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accompany the larger group's demonstration, Gran Fury served, in the words of
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the work featured cardboard silhouettes of six public figures—televangelist
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images and texts to circulate their message beyond its initial viewers.
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608:"This is to Enrage You: Gran Fury and the Graphics of AIDS Activism"
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This article is about the activist group. For the automobile, see
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In 1990, the group became notorious for its contribution to the
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Health and disability rights organizations in the United States
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Gran Fury, Let Them Die in the Streets, 1990, enamel signage
70:, Michael Nesline, Mark Simpson and Robert Vazquez-Pacheco.
426:." Hyperallergic. November 21, 2012. Retrieved 2017-06-13
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The collective aimed to push various individuals such as
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Gran Fury--collected works (high resolution downloads)
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697:"Review/Art; Venice Biennale Opens With Surprises"
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908:Defunct LGBT organizations based in New York City
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519:. London: Laurence King Publishing. p. 112.
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148:(1950–1989), an ACTUP member and curator of the
883:1990 AIDS PSA by Gran Fury (Media Burn Archive)
648:"AIDS, Art and Activism: Remembering Gran Fury"
879:at New York Public Library Digital Collections
866:"When Political Art Mattered" (New York Times)
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249:Sexism Rears Its Unprotected Head Installation
861:"Gran Fury talks to Douglas Crimp" (Artforum)
813:(First ed.). New York: Bold Type Books.
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616:But Is It Art? The Spirit of Art as Activism
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127:but was full of information relating to the
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478:. Oxford: Oxford. pp. 225–237.
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780:Cohen, Michael; Gran Fury (2015).
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452:"Gran Fury Talks to Douglas Crimp"
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871:Gran Fury collection finding aid
721:Gober, Robert (March 18, 1989).
646:John d'Addario (December 2011).
569:"Gran Fury Collection 1987-1995"
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46:activist artist collective from
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489:Kabat, Jennifer (2012),
352:Gran Fury: Read My Lips.
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783:Gran Fury: Read My Lips
606:Meyer, Richard (1995).
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254:Practicing art/activism
182:President Ronald Reagan
332:Robert Vazquez-Pacheco
272:John Cardinal O'Connor
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198:"Kissing Doesn't Kill"
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236:Roman Catholic Church
140:"Let the Record Show"
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918:1988 in LGBT history
515:Kalb, Peter (2013).
405:on November 26, 2015
422:Clements, Alexis. "
166:Let the Record Show
756:steinhardt.nyu.edu
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162:The New York Times
125:The New York Times
120:The New York Times
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21:Plymouth Gran Fury
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493:, Frieze Magazine
298:Avram Finkelstein
217:Pope John Paul II
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680:August 12,
550:2022-01-05
491:Not Enough
409:2015-11-06
381:Art Papers
366:References
228:Mr. Koons'
150:New Museum
114:mass-media
545:Gran Fury
456:Art Forum
350:Works in
306:Tom Kalin
302:Amy Heard
158:Holocaust
110:Coca-Cola
60:Tom Kalin
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729:May 31,
614:(ed.).
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240:Vatican
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42:was an
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610:. In
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232:AIDS
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