ALTERNATE ENDINGS highlights the diverse voices of seven artists/collectives that use video to bring together charged moments and memories from their personal perspective amidst the public history of HIV/AIDS. Featuring videos by Rhys Ernst, Glen Fogel, Lyle Ashton Harris, Hi Tiger, Tom Kalin, My Barbarian and Julie Tolentino. Conceived and organized by Tom Kalin and Visual AIDS. Alternate Endings was produced and commissioned by Visual AIDS for the 25th anniversary of Day With(out) Art. Visual AIDS utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.
ALTERNATE ENDINGS VIDEOS & BIOS The short videos in ALTERNATE ENDINGS use a mix of found footage, live performance, still photos, and robotic cameras to weave together connections between personal stories and public memories. They share tales of love and breakups, sing songs of defiance, celebrate action, and remember those whom we have lost. Through these diverse stories we are invited to reflect upon our complex past as we envision divergent narratives and possibilities for the future, because AIDS IS NOT OVER. Featuring work by Rhys Ernst, Glen Fogel, Lyle Ashton Harris, Hi Tiger, Tom Kalin, My Barbarian and Julie Tolentino. Conceived by Tom Kalin and Visual AIDS. Produced by Visual AIDS. Visual AIDS presents ALTERNATE ENDINGS to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Day With(out) Art. On December 1 st 1989, the first Day With(out) Art was created by Visual AIDS as a national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis. 25 years later, ALTERNATE ENDINGS show- cases provocative new works that reflect and respond to the ongoing AIDS pandemic. Visual AIDS utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, preserving a legacy of those we lost, and supporting HIV+ artists, because AIDS is not over. View and share these videos online at: www.vimeo.com/visualaidsnyc #VisualAIDS #DayWithoutArt #AlternateEndings Tom Kalin, Ashes, 2014, 5:49 For Ashes, Tom Kalin photographed thousands of high resolution still images and "stitched" them into a moving image. While borrowing library books for research on another project, Kalin discovered, glued to the endpapers, ordinary "due date" ledgers stamped with dates spanning three decades. Inspired by these tiny ledgers like skin or palimpsests that recorded an analog history, an accumulation of many gestures Kalin combines quotidian pictures snatched from his daily life with an evocative musical track by ongoing collaborator Doveman (Thomas Bartlett). The film layers dates and moments from Kalin's personal world with the public and global history of AIDS. Tom Kalin is known as a prominent figure in the New Queer Cinema. His critically acclaimed work traverses diverse forms, including experimental films, video installations and narrative feature films. In these works and as a member of the activist collective Gran Fury, Kalin has done significant work to change public opinion of AIDS. Named one of the top 100 American Independent films by the BFI, his first feature, Swoon, was awarded Berlin's Caligari Prize, Stockholm's Fipresci Prize, Sundance's Best Cinematography and the Gotham Awards ''Open Palm. His feature Savage Grace premiered in Cannes, played opening night in Zurich and screened at festivals including Sundance, Karlovy Vary, London and Tribeca. It was nominated for a Spirit Award and named one of the top ten films of 2008 by Artforum and Paper. As a producer his features include I Shot Andy Warhol and Go Fish. He was a writer of Cindy Sherman's Office Killer. He has also created shorts and installations including They are lost to vision altogether, Geoffrey Beene 30, Plain Pleasures, Third Known Nest, Every Wandering Cloud, Behold Goliath, Incontinent and My Silent One. Kalin was a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow. He has twice been included in the Whitney Biennial.
Rhys Ernst, Dear Lou Sullivan, 2014, 6:16 Dear Lou Sullivan by LA- based artist Rhys Ernst invokes the story of Lou Sullivan, a trans man and AIDS activist largely responsible for establishing the distinction between gender identity and sexual orientation. Cut with images of Ernst s own examination of this figure and trans history, the video is structured by the search for and desire to identify transmasculine elders and an inter- generational exploration of gay transmasculine identity. Utilizing interview footage, excerpts of Sullivan s book Information for the Female- to- Male Crossdresser and Transsexual, VHS gay porn, and Grindr chats, Dear Lou Sullivan is a meditation on the life of the late trans man and AIDS activist that explores the bodily intersection of transmasculine gay and HIV+ identity. Rhys Ernst is a filmmaker and artist who works across narrative and experimental film, photography, animation, and mixed- media, utilizing various forms and modalities to investigate masculinity, transgender identity and the intersection of gender and narrative construction. Ernst received his MFA in Film/ Video at CalArts in 2011 and a BA from Hampshire College in 2004. His MFA thesis film, THE THING premiered at Sundance 2012 and his collaborative film with Zackary Drucker, SHE GONE ROGUE, premiered at the 2012 Made in LA Los Angeles Biennial at the Hammer Museum. Past exhibitions and screenings include the 2014 Whitney Biennial, Oberhausen, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and in Los Angeles at UCLA Hammer Museum, REDCAT, and LACE. He lives in Los Angeles. rhysernst.com My Barbarian, Counterpublicity, 2014, 7:12 My Barbarian's Counterpublicity is a staged video performance based on an essay about Pedro Zamora, AIDS activist and star of the Real World:San Francisco, written by José Esteban Muñoz in his book, Disidentifications. The three members of My Barbarian re- perform scenes from The Real World in an alienated style, resisting the affect of "reality tv" even as they interrogate its politics, contrasting these scenes with the embodied performance of 90s- inspired music videos, with lyrics adapted from Muñoz's theory of Queer counterpublic spheres that operate against the dominance of racism and homophobia. My Barbarian is a Los Angeles based collaborative group consisting of Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon and Alexandro Segade. The trio makes site- responsive performances and video installations that use theatrical play to draw allegorical narratives out of historical dilemmas, mythical conflicts, and current political crises. My Barbarian had solo exhibitions with Steve Turner Contemporary in Los Angeles (2008, 2009) and at Participant, Inc. in New York (2009). In 2008, the group made a collaborative exhibition with the sculptor Lara Schnitger at Museum Het Domain, Sittard, NL, which, in 2009, traveled to the Luckman Gallery in Los Angeles. Since 2004, they have shown in group exhibitions and/or performance programs, including REDCAT, LACMA, Hammer Museum, LAXART, Schindler House, LACE, Steve Turner Contemporary, New Museum, Whitney Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, Participant Inc., P.S.1, Joe's Pub, Anton Kern Gallery, Yerba Buena Center, MOCA, Hyde Park Art Center, Aspen Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Forum, Vox Populi, Estacion Tijuana & Lui Velazquez, The Power Plant, De Appel, Peres Projects, Torpedo, El Matadero, Galleria Civica, Center for Contemporary Art, and Townhouse Gallery. My Barbarian was included in the 2005 and 2007 Performa Biennials, 2006 and 2008 California Biennials, 2007 Montreal Biennial, and 2009 Baltic Triennial. The group has made two full- length albums of music from its performances: Cloven Soft- Shoe (2004) and California Sweet & the 7 Pagan Rights (2008). mybarbarian.com
Julie Tolentino, evidence, 2014, 4:17 In evidence, first conceived in 2010 and remixed in 2014, Julie Tolentino s naked, moving body articulates backward on her hands and knees, balancing a cluster of Asian medicine cups. Her self- made sound piece initiates the video with a queer list of loved ones living and lost, recognizable or not, as both invocation and provocation of individuals who deeply shifted her perspective. As the listed names blur and are archived in Tolentino's body, evidence opens up to the list's potency through a female, brown, artist/activist body in the unseen yet held spaces of relationship, memory, sex and loss. Julie Tolentino s career spans over two decades of dance, installation, and site- specific durational performance. Her diverse roles have included host, producer, mentor, and collaborator with artists such as Meg Stuart, Ron Athey, Madonna, Catherine Opie, David Rousseve, Juliana Snapper, Diamanda Galàs, Stosh Fila, Robert Crouch, Elana Mann, Mark So, Gran Fury, and Rodarte. Tolentino is deeply influenced by her extensive experience as a caregiver, an Eastern and aquatic bodyworker, a highly disciplined contemporary dancer, and as proprietress of the Clit Club in New York. Her manifold, exploratory duet/solo practice includes installation, dance- for- camera, and durational performance engaging improvisation one- to- one score- making and fluids, including blood, tears, and honey. As an extension of her practice after twenty- five years in New York City, she designed and built a solar- powered live work residency in the Mohave Desert called FERAL House and Studio, where she explores the remote forms of physical inquiry through landscape and texts. She has received numerous grants and fellowships. She is currently the editor of Provocations in the Drama Review- TDR (MIT Press). Her works have been commissioned by The Kitchen, Participant Inc., Invisible Exports Performa 05 and 13, Spill Festival, Tramway, DanceExchange, and queerupnorth. Recent tours include England, Europe, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and through the United States. julietolentino.com Hi Tiger, The Village, 2014, 6:41 Hi Tiger recreates the song The Village by New Order. Originally, New Order recorded the song as an upbeat new wave tune in 1982. With Hi Tiger's re- imagining some 30 years later, The Village becomes a torch song that meditates on themes of love and loss, complicity and defiance. In the context of HIV and AIDS, the song becomes a love letter to those that have passed and a call to arms for the ones who remain. Hi Tiger is a Portland, ME based art- punk band fronted by visual artist and performer Derek Jackson, which evolved from a 2009 mult- media installation presented as part of the annual exhibition, Sacred and Profane. The piece, titled NIGHT LIFE, led to the release of their debut album, "I love music" in 2011. In 2013, Hi Tiger teamed up with Julian Heughan and Jacob Pitcher to create IN OUR SICK SOCIETY, a recording and performance as part of the exhibition NOT OVER: 25 Years of Visual AIDS, curated by Kris Nuzzi and Sur Rodney Sur. The piece was first performed at LePetit Versailles in NYC and later traveled to Maine and Massachusetts. Hi Tiger is currently performing material from a new work inspired by the words "Endless Sleeplessness." The piece was commissioned by Zero Station in Portland, Maine and consists of live instrumentation by Josh Thibeault, vocals by Derek Jackson, backing tracks by Remy Brecht, and arrangement by Sam Lee, Jack Reynolds and Julian Heughan. Derek Jackson is also the founder and creative director of Hung Magazine, published by Sur Rodney (Sur). He is a member of gogocuntrypunkmashupelectrohouse ensemble of Daisy Spurs. His work was featured in a video program at CRG Gallery curated by Angela Dufresne and was included in the exhibition "Framing AIDS" curated by Hector Canonge at the Queens Museum of Art. Jackson is a recipient of numerous awards including the Brooklyn Arts Council, The Djerassi Artist Residency Program, and Momenta Arts. He is a graduate of the Experimental Theater Wing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts as well as the City University of New York at Brooklyn College. hitigermusic.com
Lyle Ashton Harris, Selections from the Ektachrome Archive 1986 1996, 2014, 7:23 Selections from the Ektachrome Archive is a snap- shot from 1986 1996, chronicling the moments now memories of this charged decade. This selection features over one hundred images taken by Harris from his extensive archive of Ekta- chrome photographs. Harris captures creatives and intellectuals including Nan Goldin, Samuel R. Delaney, Stuart Hall, Essex Hemphill, bell hooks, Isaac Julien, Catherine Opie and Marlon Riggs among others in both intimate settings as well as now- historic events such as the Black Popular Culture Conference (1991), the opening for the Whitney s landmark Black Male exhibition (1994), and his travels from New York to London and Los Angeles to Rome. Images of bedroom scenes and personal mementos punctuate public present- ations and social gatherings, as a register of Harris's life during the height of the AIDS crisis and its impact. Moreover, this archive takes the temperature of America s recent past and charts its radical epistemological shifts. Lyle Ashton Harris has cultivated a diverse artistic practice ranging from photographic media, collage, installation and performance. His work explores intersections between the personal and the political, examining the impact of ethnicity, gender and desire on the contemporary social and cultural dynamic. Known for his self- portraits and use of pop culture icons (such as Billie Holiday and Michael Jackson), Harris teases viewers perceptions and expectations, resignifying cultural cursors and recalibrating the familiar with the extraordinary. His work has been exhibited internationally, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the 52nd Venice Biennale. His work has been acquired by major international museums, most recently by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2014 Harris joined the board of trustees at the American Academy in Rome and was named the 10 th recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. lyleashtonharris.com Glen Fogel, 7 Years Later, 2014, 4:19 For 7 Years Later, Glen Fogel visited his ex- boyfriend Nathan Lee in Providence, RI and videotaped a conversation between the two of them. They discuss the events that led to their breakup seven years ago, while a robotic camera autonomously scans the apartment. The video is edited to look as though it is a seamless single take, a time warp in which Fogel and Lee appear in multiple places in the apartment at the same time. Glen Fogel is an artist living and working in New York. Solo exhibitions include Callicoon Fine Arts, New York (2013); Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (2013); Aspect Ratio, Chicago (2013); Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (2012); Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (2011); Participant Inc., New York (2011); The Kitchen, New York (2008); and Momenta Art, New York (2006). Group exhibitions include Coming After at The Power Plant, Toronto (2011); A Word Like Tomorrow Wear Things Out at Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York (2010); Log Cabin at Artists Space, New York (2006); and The Whitney Biennial, New York (2002). Fogel s film and video work has screened widely at venues including The Toronto International Film Festival; The London International Film Festival; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Images Festival, Toronto; Chicago Filmmakers; and Anthology Film Archives, New York. glenfogel.com
Visual AIDS Founded in 1988, Visual AIDS is the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to HIV prevention and AIDS awareness through producing and presenting visual art projects, while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS, and preserving the work of artists with HIV/AIDS and the artistic contributions of the AIDS movement. In 1989, to make the public aware that AIDS can touch everyone and to inspire positive action, Visual AIDS presented the first Day Without Art organizing museums and art institutions nationwide to cover up their artwork, darken their galleries, and even close for the day to symbolically represent the chilling possibility of a future without art or artists. Since then, Day With(out) Art has grown into a collaborative project in which organizations worldwide present exhibitions, screenings and public programs to highlight work by HIV+ artists and artwork addressing current issues around the ongoing AIDS pandemic. Visit Visual AIDS website for more information about programming and events: Visual AIDS, 526 West 26 th Street, Suite 510, New York, NY 10001 www.visualaids.org ALTERNATE ENDINGS was produced by Visual AIDS 2014 Conceived and organized by Tom Kalin and Visual AIDS Visual AIDS thanks the participating artists: Rhys Ernst, Glen Fogel, Hi Tiger (Derek Jackson), Tom Kalin, Lyle Ashton Harris, My Barbarian (Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon & Alexandro Segade) and Julie Tolentino. Special thanks: Azmi Mert Erdem, Ted Kerr, Jamie Sisley, Peter Vaughan and Zach Wampler Visual AIDS grateful acknowledges the funders who support our work and mission: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, The Cowles Charitable Trust, Gilead Sciences, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Elton John AIDS Foundation, The Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, M A C AIDS Fund, The Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, New York Gay Pool League, NYU Community Fund, and all of our individual donors.