MA Dissertation Project
Love, Empathy, & Anger is a piece of communication design that explores the people, lives, and stories impacted by the 1980/90s HIV epidemic in Britain as told by them. As the government and media weaponised language, so did the queer community. Not only through activism, but through recording their experience through writing, interviews, and various other forms such as the quilt.
We can see the lives THEY wanted to share.
And understand the legacy THEY created.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT READS:
Between 1981 and 1996, AIDS claimed approximately 8,700 lives, although modern estimates suggest this number may have reached as high as 10,000 to 11,000 in the UK alone.
Each dot represents one hundred people known to have died from AIDS, and every clear dot symbolises those unknown. Not a death toll, but instead a question as to the true effects of the crisis, and the involvement of the British government and media.
During the height of the crisis, language was weaponised, used as a tool to manufacture stigma. As Judith Butler lays out, words hold power–they wound and have the ability to marginalise. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick argues the idea of enforced silence over sexuality sustaining oppression. Together, these dynamics of stigma and silence isolated an entire community in crisis.
Just as the press and government used words, so did the community. Through a variety of sources, the truth of the queer experience at a time of crisis has been preserved and offers an exclusive privilege: a chance to listen to their voices. By reading about their experiences, we can truly understand them, without using imagery. Instead of becoming voyeurs and merely looking at their suffering through photographs, we have the opportunity to look inside their mind and see their full story.
The lives THEY wanted to share.
The legacy THEY created.
If you wish to read a copy of the Love, Empathy, & Anger newspaper then send me a message and I’ll share it with you.