Monday

2. Downtown

This one is close to home. These names I encounter regularly; names of important people whose work and legacies I, in part, handle, care for and guard.

The exhibition is called "Downtown Pix: Mining the Fales Archives 1961 - 1991." "Downtown" is not just a location marker; by now it is a symbol, a keyword. In fact, the quintessentially "Downtown" play depicted on the sidebar to the right was not staged in downtown New York City at all.


One panel had vivid stills from Carolee Schneemann's performance art piece, Meat Joy.


Attractive, almost-naked people rolling over each other, smearing skins with raw chicken, fish, sausages, paint ... The word "Dionysian" is used at some point in the exhibition description.

I had to walk away from David Wojnarowicz's allocated spot because I was tearing up. There was a letter from a doctor diagnosing Peter Hujar with AIDS, and W. had drawn headless, legless torsos of two topless men kissing on the upper-right corner. I had seen Hujar's death photos up close before, but that plain piece of office paper was more powerful than a space full of gelatin prints.




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