Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS

308 Pages·2022·3.39 MB·English

by  Marika Cifor

Viral Cultures
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VIRAL CULTURES
Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS
marika cifor
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
Copyright 2022 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401- 2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
ISBN 978- 1-5 179- 0935-2 (hc)
ISBN 978- 1-5 179- 0936-9 (pb)
Library of Congress record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021061579
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer.
UMP BmB 2022
to all the aCtiVist- arChiVists of hiV/aiDs—
past, present, anD future
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CONTENTS
Introduction. For the Record: AIDS, Archives,
and Vital Nostalgia 1
1 “Your Nostalgia Is Killing Me!” ACT UP Nostalgia and the
Meaning of HIV/AIDS 35
2 How to ACT UP: AIDS Archival Temporalities and the
(Anti- )Institutionalization of the ACT UP/New York Records 69
3 An Archival Cure: Remedy, Care, and Curation with the
Visual AIDS Archive Project 111
4 Status = Undetectable: Liminality and Archival Exhibitions
in the Age of Survivability 155
5 Going Viral: Mobilizing AIDS Archives in Digital Cultures 193
Epilogue: How to Survive Another Plague 221
Acknowledgments  233
Notes  237
Index  285
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INTRODUCTION
For the Record: AIDS, Archives, and Vital Nostalgia
if he were alive today he would be at this opening
if she were alive today you’d be texting her right now
if he were alive today he would be going gray
if they were alive today they could tell you about getting arrested at
City Hall
if she were alive today you’d be so her type
if he were alive today you would have met him by now
if she were alive today she would have finished writing that book
if he were alive today he would have you on your knees
if he were alive today you’d still be arguing about that
if he were alive today he’d still be living with AIDS
“aids” stands apart in fierce pussy’s For the Record. Printed in the
retrovirus’s signature bloodred hue,1 “AIDS” breaks the singularity of
the broadside’s full-p age, all- black text, a creative punctuation and punc-
tum. Queer dyke art- action collective fierce pussy’s text- based artwork
reclaims language and public space for HIV/AIDS. With each iteration
of “If he/she/they were alive today,” the broadside intervenes in the
strictures of AIDS time. Created in 2013 for arts organization Visual
AIDS’s twenty- fourth Day With(out) Art,2 it is printed on cheap news-
print. With an intimate catechism of ifs repeating across the windows of
New York City bookstore and gallery Printed Matter, fierce pussy trans-
formed the site into a newsstand, taking their installation about the nature
and meanings of the AIDS record to Chelsea’s bustling sidewalks. For the
Record also moved in posters distributed at museums, galleries, and non-
profits, on stickers and postcards, and in downloadable digital editions.
Fierce pussy knew that passersby would only briefly scan the text, so they
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