The Smithsonian isn’t the only museum caving under the pressure of AIDS-related controversy. An artsy outpost in Madison, Wisconsin, has also decided AIDS art is just too scandalous for patrons, the AP reports. Think of the children!
A photo showing a nude man with a handful of pill bottles covering his lap has been removed from a Madison exhibit featuring amateur photographers living with HIV/AIDS. Overture Center officials were concerned that children who walk through the Playhouse Gallery on their way to shows could “connect sickness with genitals.” The exhibit runs through Sunday and was installed to coincide with World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. The black-and-white photo is titled “Stripped.” A narrative written to accompany the photo read: “I can strip everything else away, but the insidious virus still remains.”
Because nothing tells children to hate their bodies like a black-and-white print depicting the agony of AIDS. Now off to Sunday school, little ones, where your good priest will tell you about the joys of fornication! Evidently staying true to the title of the exhibit — “”Living with HIV/AIDS: Perspectives Through the Lens” — proved too difficult.
me
This type of art is SICKENING!!!! As a gay man myself the porn infested elements and inuendos implied by this filth is downright disgusting!!! Sad to say, in man ways, the gay community with it’s crossdressing amd freak show pride parades, is nothing more than social vomit!!!!
I fully embrace the fact that I’m gay, and support equal rights completly, but I am infinetly distanced from many aspects of the gay “community”. I blame the religionist that pushed suched ones to the brink of moral degradation, but be that as it may, the byproduct produced by such religious bigotry is disturbing nonetheless.
demonW
*reads above comment
*rolls eyes
Eric
“Could connect sickness with genitals”
I believe that was the point of the photograph. A harsh reality, but true, and it would be naive and irresponsible to ignore it.
hotone2me
Let’s see.. um HIV, a “sexually” transmitted infectious disease… and um…AIDS… a syndrome that is also related by means of contracting it “sexually”… I would have to say that the association is right on. This may be a photo that captures and produces a well intended message. Admittedly, if this was not art, then we would not be discussing anything about it!
A. Awareness
R. Realness
T. Teaching