David Wojnarowicz : A Definitive History of Five or Six Years on the Lower East Side

by Ambrosino, Giancarlo

• ISBN13: 9781584350354
• ISBN10: 1584350350
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-01
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

In February 1991, the artist David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992) and the philosopher Sylvère Lotringer met in a borrowed East Village apartment to conduct a long-awaited dialogue on Wojnarowicz's work. Wojnarowicz was then at the peak of his notoriety as the fiercest antagonist of morals crusader Senator Jesse Helms--a notoriety that Wojnarowicz alternately embraced and rejected. Already suffering the last stages of AIDS, David saw his dialogue with Lotringer as a chance to set the record straight on his aspirations, his personal history, and his political views. The two arranged to have this three-hour dialogue video-recorded by a mutual friend, the artist Marion Scemama. Lotringer held on to the tape for a long time. After Wojnarowicz's death the following year, he found the transcript enormously moving, yet somehow incomplete. David was trying, often with heartbreaking eloquence, to define not just his career but its position in time. The subject was huge, and transcended the actual dialogue. Lotringer then spent the next several years gathering additional commentary on Wojnarowicz's life and work from those who knew him best--the friends with whom he collaborated. Lotringer solicited personal testimony from Wojnarowicz's friends and other artists, including Mike Bildo, Steve Brown, Julia Scher, Richard Kern, Carlo McCormick, Ben Neill, Kiki Smith, Nan Goldin, Marguerite van Cook, and others. What emerges from these masterfully-conducted interviews is a surprising insight into something art history knows, but systematically hides: the collaborative nature of the work of any "great artist." All these respondents had, at one time, made performances, movies, sculptures, photographs, and other collaborative works with Wojnarowicz. In this sense, Wojnarowicz appears not only as a great originator, but as a great synthesizer.

Author Biography

Sylvère Lotringer is Jean Baudrillard Chair at the European Graduate School, Switzerland, and Professor Emeritus of French literature and philosophy at Columbia University.

Sylvère Lotringer is Jean Baudrillard Chair at the European Graduate School, Switzerland, and Professor Emeritus of French literature and philosophy at Columbia University.

David Wojnarowicz (1954–1992) was a painter, filmmaker, photographer, writer, AIDS activist, and one of the most prominent figures in the New York art world of the 1980s.

David Wojnarowicz (1954–1992) was a painter, filmmaker, photographer, writer, AIDS activist, and one of the most prominent figures in the New York art world of the 1980s.

Jennifer Doyle is Professor of English at the University of California, Riverside.

Table of Contents

PART 1: COLLABORATORS
Carlo McCormick	10	(8)
Julie Hair	18	(8)
Mike Bidlo	26	(8)
Keiko Bonk	34	(4)
Steve Brown	38	(8)
Steve Doughton	46	(8)
Bill Rice	54	(8)
Richard Kern	62	(12)
Tommy Turner	74	(8)
Kiki Smith	82	(8)
David West	90	(6)
Marguerite van Cook & James Romberger	96	(16)
Ben Neill	112	(4)
Paul Marcus	116	(6)
Marion Scemama	122	(20)
Tom Rauffenbart	142	(14)
PART 2: DAVID LIVE
Sylvere Lotringer / David Wojnarowicz	156	(40)
Nan Goldin / David Wojnarowicz	196	(16)
Court Transcript	212	(14)
A Thin Line by Jennifer Doyle	226