record

Thesis Info

LABS ID
*removed* 00862
Thesis Title
Public memorial, private anger Memorialising disease in the age of HIV/AIDS
Author
Helen Birnbaum
2nd Author
3rd Author
Degree
MA Art in Science
Year
2020
Number of Pages
36
University
Liverpool John Moores University
Thesis Supervisor
Mark Roughley, Programme Leader Art in Science
Supervisor e-mail
M.A.Roughley AT ljmu.ac.uk
Other Supervisor(s)
Kathryn Smith
Language(s) of Thesis
Engish
Department / Discipline
Art in Science
Copyright Ownership
Helen Birnbaum
Languages Familiar to Author
English
URL where full thesis can be found
drive.google.com/file/d/168HkwocWKlbl6KkVuNGw03k-_DKAyxB_/view?usp=sharing
Keywords
HIV, Memorial, Hospitals, Activism, Art
Abstract: 200-500 words
Has the way we memorialise the dead changed fundamentally because of the dramatic and politicised acts of memorial of the AIDS epidemic of the 1980’s? AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the medical term used to describe the illnesses and infections that people suffer at the last stage of HIV/human immunodeficiency virus infection, and in the 1980’s gay communities around the world fought for lives to be memorialised with dignity and appropriate health care provided. Did these events have a significant effect on the way mainstream society memorialises death or are there other factors to be considered such as the increasing use of social media in all aspects of our lives and deaths? However, does the act of memorialisation continue to be writing epitaphs according to pre-set formulas; attending funerals; going to memorial services; putting up plaques and raising statues for the famous or the many we have lost to disease and death? I explore new narratives that have developed in relation to HIV/AIDS these being memorialised. I also ask if women’s experience of HIV/AIDS overlooked and why? Finally, I analyse the public histories and the personal narrative of my participant to come to an understanding of what changed how we choose to memorialise the dead. This study reports on research which provides a backdrop to the understanding of HIV and memorialisation; historical, theoretical and methodological co-ordinates enable this by analysing archival practice, art, memorial, celebrity and family values. I took a case study approach in certain cases and analysed specific examples of AIDS memorial such as the Names AIDS Quilt (1987) to further my investigation. For this study it was important to understand UK culture in the 80s; events and individuals of international significance that impacted the UK experience; political prejudice, social marginalisation; artists and activists who pushed back against this; iconic works of the time including the (AIDS quilt); key theorists; and themes that emerged in the work of particular artists. I analysed how effective these methods of public memorial were in honouring the devastating effects that AIDS had on this generation. Few studies of AIDS have attempted to analyse its memorialisation by exploring the tension that exists between the need to create a public memorial and the private anger that still exists those who experienced the AIDS epidemic. But Jessica Heath, MA Student, Jessica Jessica Heath University, MA student, Leeds University provides one of a series of blog posts focussing on the material culture of remembrance in the AIDS memorial quilts. Exploring Counter Memorials: The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt. https://livingwithdying.leeds.ac.uk/2019/08/16/exploring-counter-memorials-the-uk-aids-memorial-quilt/ Qualitative methodology was used in an in-depth interview with a medical professional who worked in AIDS units throughout the crisis of the 1980’s and is central to my analysis. The interview structured around, and attended very closely to, a series of photographs from the participant’s personal archive. The tension that exists between the need for public memorial and the private anger that remains is highlighted through this personal, and very powerful, testimony of a doctor who worked during this epidemic. Our conversation has become my own personal reflection and memorial to this shocking time when too many people that I knew and worked with in London during the 1980’s died from AIDS; an experience shared with my participant who worked as a doctor as young gay man in AIDS units during the crisis. This recorded experience is all the more poignant because my participant contracted HIV/AIDS many years’ later. But this is an on-going story and, despite significant advances in treatment and drugs women now account for the majority of cases of HIV. What memorials have been created for them? Since starting to write this study the Covid-19 pandemic has hit the world and in its wake is re-creating what memorial means. I explore these conflicting views and try to reach an understanding of the tensions that exist between public memorial and private anger during and after the age of HIV/AIDS.