Introduction:
In the early 80’s, HIV/AIDS was not seen as a major problem for most people given the low awareness and education available at that time. However, one artist named Keith Haring, presented cartoons posters describing the social problems and the burden of HIV/AIDS, being himself infected by the virus. He decided to create artwork that would impact the world and help them understand the major problems related to this deadly disease. A big part of his creations has had social messages addressed to the public or political organizations. This paper addresses the cultural productions of Keith Haring in parallel with the acknowledgment of the disease at that time, and it also explains how culture could be as powerful as politics in conveing messages to the population.
Haring’s work:
Haring’s messages through his pieces had an impact on spreading the knowledge of the AIDS virus in the world. As we can see cultural productions can address politics or the public, thus, like Haring many other artists had impacts on helping the population understand problems and spread the word. Politics and the media are the first source of information for people, they usually introduce news in a very direct way, with a disease like HIV/AIDS it can scare people. But cultural productions send strong messages indirectly, which makes people curious, the way the information is introduced and spread throughout the world is a factor that could also make a difference in the way people understand a new concept.
The poster I chose to talk about sends a direct message to the public. Keith highlights the most important factors of HIV and AIDS, his representation of the virus is explained in a two word equations, such as ‘’ignorance=fear and silence=death’’, by ignorance he means to amplify on the fact that the population was not aware of what was happening back then. The silence represents the government and people not acting up on the virus. The poster consists of three yellow figures outlined in think black lines with a red/orange background, (Ann Stuhltrager, 2015). In all of Haring’s pieces all figures have their mouth or ears covered, they all have the X sign on their chest that represent AIDS. The characters represent the people infected by the AIDS virus, who are afraid to speak up about their pain and who have been shut out from society, (Ann Stuhltrager, 2015). During the 1980’s the knowledge of AIDS was very limited, the term HIV/AIDS were used as GRID which meant gay related immune deficiency, (Ann Stuhltrager, 2015). The fact that people knew less made them afraid of the disease which lead to low self- awareness on testing of recognizing the illness and the vital repercussions of AIDS.
Artist’s intention and beliefs:
Haring was an artist that was suffering the same way others were, he had the power to raise awareness and he dedicated his last years trying to raise funds to help the rest of the people infected by the disease, , (The Keith Haring Foundation, 1989).He was an activist that gave a voice to people infected by the disease, his cultural productions helped the activists emphasize on the fact that HIV/AIDS was not only a cultural concern but a political, social and economic one, (The Keith Haring Foundation, 1989). His body of work like many other artists helped recognize a major problem happening in the world that even socialists and governments didn’t want to admit at that time. His creations were about universal concepts such as birth, death, love, sex and war, that sent direct messages, (The Keith Haring Foundation, 1989). He was able to, attract a wide audience that could view his pieces everywhere, and they became a worldwide known visual language in the 20th century, (The Keith Haring Foundation, 1989) Haring’ work in the 1980’s was to express his differences he had with the politics of Reagan and Thatcher’s conservatism, Helfand (2014). The aim of his work was a clear message to convey his political beliefs.
Political and historical context:
At that time, according to Capozzola (1985-1993, p.98), the governments of Ronald Reagan and Georges Bush, were very quiet about the HIV/AIDS disease. The quilt created a community that came together more after the neglecting of the political powers. Many AIDS activists started to grow their campaigns to fight for the people with the disease, they also condemned the Reagan government because they didn’t give it much importance, (Capozzola,1985-1993, p.98). The president never talked about the disease publically, not until 21,000 Americans had died from the virus. Gay men in the late 1980’s were still rejected from conservatives and from the society given that their profile would not fit the typical family standard. (Capozzola,1985-1993, p.99). Which became an issue for the AIDS activists and the gay communities, due to the social stereotypes on gay people. (Capozzola,1985-1993, p.99). Another factor not to ignore was the rapid growth of the AIDS disease in the world during the 1980’s and 1990’s. In fact, the virus had spread in poor communities of color, and white/middle-class gay men. To add on that, the Names Project (memorial quilt for people that died from AIDS) was facing many critics from activists like Rick Rose in 1992 arguing that the quilt wasn’t bringing enough information to educate the people. (Capozzola,1985-1993, p.101). However, Cleve Jones used the idea of the Names project as a tool that lead to the creation of a political identity in the world, the best
example of the success of the Quilt would be the protest of Gay men in the late 1980’s which made the entire world realize the danger of the disease (Capozzola,1985-1993, p.102).
Another event that occurred at the same time was the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in (sub-Sahara, Uganda), (Cohen,2003, p.132). In comparison with the United-States, Uganda installed a program called ABC in the mid 80’s, which meant (Abstain, Be faithful, use Condoms). This movement helped their population understand the disease and how they could avoid transmitting it to others (Cohen,2003, p.132). More on that, during the early 1990’s cultural meaning was the central source to understanding how the virus could be transmitted and how to adopt appropriate programs to prevent transmission of the disease and reduce the rates of it (Parker,2001, p165). Research on health was very restricted back in the day and with the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS around the world, researchers began to look for solutions or to treat the people infected by it (Parker 2001, p166). Sexual identity was a taboo for the population and viewed as social persons who were a part of a specific cultural context.
Conclusion:
In this paper, comparing an art production on HIV/AIDS and the events happening in the 1980’s 1990’s, made us realize how a simple cultural production could have a big impact on helping the world understand a disease like AIDS. Political administrations like in the US neglected the disease. However, in countries like Africa where the virus was spreading rapidly, they took measures to try preventing the transmission. In the US, people criticized gay communities and conservatives weren’t approving gays because of the old notion of standard family. The use of cultural production introducing the HIV/AIDS illness made the notions related to AIDS accepted. Finally, the outcome of many artistic production paved the way for education and optimal awareness on AIDS.