David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night
July 13–Sept 30, 2018
Audio
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No Motive is an album recorded by 3 Teens Kill 4, a band that included David Wojnarowicz as well as Doug Bressler, Brian Butterick, Julie Hair, and Jesse Hultberg. By 1980, punk’s DIY aesthetic had permeated the East Village scene, and an increasing number of visual artists were experimenting with post-punk music. Wojnarowicz began exploring musical projects when he became a busboy at the nightclub Danceteria. The constant exposure to music—often performed by ad-hoc bands—prompted the artist and two friends to start their own group, naming it after a New York Post headline. Wojnarowicz did not play an instrument; he instead focused on captured sounds played from a handheld tape recorder. The low fi collaging of audio fragments contributed to the band’s distinctive sound. Though 3 Teens Kill 4 would continue in different configurations until 1987, Wojnarowicz left in 1983 to focus on his visual art.
3 Teens Kill 4, No Motive. Point Blank Records 1982, l'Invitation au Suicide 1984, remastered by Dark Entries Records 2017. Doug Bressler, Brian Butterick, Julie Hair, Jesse Hultberg, David Wojnarowicz
Perspectives
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A Companion Guide to David Wojnarowicz
—ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) -
The David Wojnarowicz Papers: Journals
—Fales Library & Special Collections -
Fear of Disclosure: Psycho Social Implication of HIV Revelation
—Phil Zwickler -
AIDS at 30
"On June 5, 1981, the first five cases of what came to be known as AIDS were reported"
—amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research -
America's Hidden HIV Epidemic
"Why do America’s black gay and bisexual men have a higher H.I.V. rate than any country in the world?"
—The New York Times -
Terry Gross interviews David Wojnarowicz
—Fresh Air -
'Dangerous complacency' to global HIV epidemic risks resurgence
"A 'dangerous complacency' in the response to the global HIV pandemic is risking a resurgence of the disease"
—BBC News -
Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing
Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing
—Artists Space -
"Bust", 1991 Film
—Estate of Richard Morrison
Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects -
David Wojnarowicz - Cross Country, Tape Journals, 1989
—Reading Group
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Wojnarowicz’s Apostasy
"David’s oeuvre was never only about his reactions to organized religion, nor was it ever only about the AIDS crisis."
—James Romberger -
For Gays, the Worst Is Yet to Come. Again.
"The biggest fight for our lives is ahead of us."
—Larry Kramer, The New York Times -
The David Wojnarowicz Knowledge Base
—Artist Archives Initiative -
Six Times Journalists on the Paper’s History of Covering AIDS and Gay Issues
"The New York Times had a spotty record of covering the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s — and gay culture in general."
—The New York Times Style Magazine -
The Unflinching Eye: The Symbols of David Wojnarowicz
The Unflinching Eye: The Symbols of David Wojnarowicz
—Mamdouha Bobst Gallery, NYU -
Trump administration fires all members of HIV/AIDS advisory council
"The remaining members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS were fired en masse this week."
—The Washington Post