Act Up Art Box
Artist:
Ross Bleckner
(American, born 1949)
Artist:
Louise Bourgeois
(American, born Paris, 1911 - 2010)
Artist:
Lorna Simpson
(American, born 1960)
Artist:
Kiki Smith
(German, born 1954)
Artist:
Nancy Spero
(American, 1926 - 2009)
Date: 1993-1994
Medium: Mixed media
Dimensions:
h. 5 in. (12.7 cm); w. 24 in. (61 cm); d. 14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of ArtPace, A foundation for Contemporary Art/San Antonio, to the Margaret Pace Wilson Collection of Contemporary Art
Object number: 94.26.a-g
Copyright: © Ross Bleckner, Louise Bourgeois, Mike Kelley, Simon Leung, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, Nancy Spero
Inscribed: Numbered L/R corner on bottom of box: 28/95
Provenance: Act Up, New York
Label Text
This limited edition collaborative sculpture set was created in 1993-94 to benefit ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). Each of the seven artists represented in this work donated his or her object.
Described by its founders as "a diverse, nonpartisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS Crisis," ACT UP was formed in New York City in 1987 because "health officials, government researchers, medical bureaucrats, doctors and pharmaceutical company executives were believed to be 'AIDS experts' and held all the power over people living with AIDS."
Nancy Spero (American, born 1926)
To the Revolution, 1984/94
hand-printed ink on box lid, each unique
studio associate/printer: Shari Zolla
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.g
Since the 1960s, Spero's art has addressed some of the most pressing political issues of the day. Using visual poetry as her means of expression, Spero has exhibited an ongoing commitment to her opposition to war and to her championship of women's rights. Not surprisingly, she donated her time and energy to supporting ACT UP's efforts to raise consciousness about the AIDS crisis at a time when the United States government had been slow in responding to it.
Spero has used the motif of women in procession throughout her career, often joining together figures from different eras and cultures and printing each individually by hand. In the text that accompanies the figures, "let the priests tremble, we're going to show them our sexts! . . . too bad for them," Spero's muses utter a cry for prayer that is universal, and thus transcends the confines of any single religion.
Kiki Smith (American, born 1954)
Untitled, 1993-94
color photograph and stamped glass
glass fabricators: Fred Kahl and Liza
McLaughlin of The New York Experimental
Glass Workshop; Rhode Island School of
Design Glass Department students
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.f.1-2
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, a period that saw the outbreak and perpetuation of the AIDS epidemic, Smith's art focused on the frailty of the human body. Among her memorable sculptures from the period are glass jars that house replicas of severed body parts or are filled with body fluids, and poignant bodies shaped to appear decayed or dismembered.
Smith's contribution to the ACT UP Art Box is a photograph of one of her sculptures, a fragment of a bird's claw made of clay and raw meat, shown alongside a glass disk with the image of a flower. Although one image is grotesque and the other lyrical, both allude to the fragility and temporality of life.
Mike Kelley (American, born 1954)
Hibernating Egg: Postoperative State, 1994
birch wood, cork, glue and wood putty
fabricator: John Sprague
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.c
For more than twenty years, Kelley has been internationally recognized for his subversive approach to conventional notions of art and taste. Over the years, he has used a variety of formats to question traditional values regarding such hot-button topics as sexuality, politics, and religion. As a conceptual artist whose work is driven first and foremost by ideas, Kelley works in many styles and mediums. In this example, he has created a hybrid of an egg and a wine bottle that metaphorically alludes to the preciousness of human blood, particularly in light of the AIDS epidemic. The corking of the egg to contain the blood suggests the protection of healthy blood cells, as well as blood held in reserve for transfusions. The seepage over the edges of the egg, on the other hand, brings to mind the AIDS-infected blood that has led to millions of lost lives.
Simon Leung (American, born 1964)
Approaching, 1994
silkscreened ink on silk
printers: Robert Blanton and Thomas Little,
Brand X Editions
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.d
Leung is known for installations that view homosexuality from a celebratory vantage point, an attitude that is consistent with ACT UP's mission. At the time he contributed the hand-printed silk scarf to the ACT UP Art Box, Leung was working on a larger project that would reinterpret a well-known installation by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), who is often considered the first conceptual artist. The silk-screened image on Leung's handkerchief is a detail from Duchamp's Étant donnes (1946-66), an installation about voyeurism that is housed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. To view this installation, one must approach a door with two sets of peepholes, through which we see fragments of another world that includes a nude female in a landscape.
For the printed scarf, Leung chose a detail of Duchamp's door that shows a faded area formed by the oils and perspiration from thousands of faces pressing against the wood to look through the peepholes. The effect yields the suggestion of a faint face, much like that of Christ on Veronica's Veil as portrayed in the Catholic religion.
Louise Bourgeois (French, born 1911)
Untitled, 1994
silicone rubber
fabricator: Robert Spring, Modern Art Foundry
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.b
Bourgeois' sculptures often blur distinctions between male and female sexual anatomy. As an art student in the 1940s, Bourgeois was influenced by Surrealism, an art movement inspired by the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Carl Jung (1875-1961). In their quest to visualize images that derive from the unconscious mind, Surrealist artists often depicted erotic or sexual imagery.
In many of Bourgeois' sculptures, such as the one in the ACT UP Art Box, an abstract shape may suggest a phallus, breast, or some combination of both. Bourgeois has commented that, as a wife and mother to three sons, she has witnessed the vulnerable side of masculinity. Accordingly, her gender-ambiguous sculptures articulate the idea that males have a feminine side and females may have a masculine side.
Ross Bleckner (American, born 1949)
Untitled, 1994
painted plastic, cord and metal hook
studio associates: Susie Kravets and Seth
Farris
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.a
One of the first American painters to address the AIDS epidemic in his art work, Bleckner introduced bird images into his vocabulary in the early 1990s in a series of paintings memorializing those who were HIV+ or had succumbed to AIDS. Shown amidst dark celestial skies, the birds were used as elegiac symbols associating death with the heavens.
As Bleckner is known for his paintings, his contribution to the ACT UP Art Box is a rare example of the artist working in a sculptural medium. He has painted the bird black to give the suggestion that its body is covered in tar, a poignant symbol for the loss of its freedom to fly.
Lorna Simpson (American, born 1960)
Untitled, 1994
Pyrex rods, lampworked and sandblasted,
text on recycled paper
glass fabricator: Kim Petro, The New York
Experimental Glass Workshop
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.e.1-3
Although Simpson usually works with the medium of photography, she departed from her usual format to create a pair of glass wishbones for the ACT UP Art Box. As is her custom with her photographic work, she also included a text component, a means of assisting viewers in understanding her message. In this instance, the common practice of breaking the wishbone, with the holder of the longer portion getting his or her wish, calls to mind the unpredictability of whether or not one will contract AIDS in a situation where one is at risk. Reinforcing this idea is the fragile glass itself, which serves as a poignant metaphor for the vulnerability of the human body.
(David Rubin, Label Text 2007)
Described by its founders as "a diverse, nonpartisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS Crisis," ACT UP was formed in New York City in 1987 because "health officials, government researchers, medical bureaucrats, doctors and pharmaceutical company executives were believed to be 'AIDS experts' and held all the power over people living with AIDS."
Nancy Spero (American, born 1926)
To the Revolution, 1984/94
hand-printed ink on box lid, each unique
studio associate/printer: Shari Zolla
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.g
Since the 1960s, Spero's art has addressed some of the most pressing political issues of the day. Using visual poetry as her means of expression, Spero has exhibited an ongoing commitment to her opposition to war and to her championship of women's rights. Not surprisingly, she donated her time and energy to supporting ACT UP's efforts to raise consciousness about the AIDS crisis at a time when the United States government had been slow in responding to it.
Spero has used the motif of women in procession throughout her career, often joining together figures from different eras and cultures and printing each individually by hand. In the text that accompanies the figures, "let the priests tremble, we're going to show them our sexts! . . . too bad for them," Spero's muses utter a cry for prayer that is universal, and thus transcends the confines of any single religion.
Kiki Smith (American, born 1954)
Untitled, 1993-94
color photograph and stamped glass
glass fabricators: Fred Kahl and Liza
McLaughlin of The New York Experimental
Glass Workshop; Rhode Island School of
Design Glass Department students
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.f.1-2
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, a period that saw the outbreak and perpetuation of the AIDS epidemic, Smith's art focused on the frailty of the human body. Among her memorable sculptures from the period are glass jars that house replicas of severed body parts or are filled with body fluids, and poignant bodies shaped to appear decayed or dismembered.
Smith's contribution to the ACT UP Art Box is a photograph of one of her sculptures, a fragment of a bird's claw made of clay and raw meat, shown alongside a glass disk with the image of a flower. Although one image is grotesque and the other lyrical, both allude to the fragility and temporality of life.
Mike Kelley (American, born 1954)
Hibernating Egg: Postoperative State, 1994
birch wood, cork, glue and wood putty
fabricator: John Sprague
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.c
For more than twenty years, Kelley has been internationally recognized for his subversive approach to conventional notions of art and taste. Over the years, he has used a variety of formats to question traditional values regarding such hot-button topics as sexuality, politics, and religion. As a conceptual artist whose work is driven first and foremost by ideas, Kelley works in many styles and mediums. In this example, he has created a hybrid of an egg and a wine bottle that metaphorically alludes to the preciousness of human blood, particularly in light of the AIDS epidemic. The corking of the egg to contain the blood suggests the protection of healthy blood cells, as well as blood held in reserve for transfusions. The seepage over the edges of the egg, on the other hand, brings to mind the AIDS-infected blood that has led to millions of lost lives.
Simon Leung (American, born 1964)
Approaching, 1994
silkscreened ink on silk
printers: Robert Blanton and Thomas Little,
Brand X Editions
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.d
Leung is known for installations that view homosexuality from a celebratory vantage point, an attitude that is consistent with ACT UP's mission. At the time he contributed the hand-printed silk scarf to the ACT UP Art Box, Leung was working on a larger project that would reinterpret a well-known installation by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), who is often considered the first conceptual artist. The silk-screened image on Leung's handkerchief is a detail from Duchamp's Étant donnes (1946-66), an installation about voyeurism that is housed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. To view this installation, one must approach a door with two sets of peepholes, through which we see fragments of another world that includes a nude female in a landscape.
For the printed scarf, Leung chose a detail of Duchamp's door that shows a faded area formed by the oils and perspiration from thousands of faces pressing against the wood to look through the peepholes. The effect yields the suggestion of a faint face, much like that of Christ on Veronica's Veil as portrayed in the Catholic religion.
Louise Bourgeois (French, born 1911)
Untitled, 1994
silicone rubber
fabricator: Robert Spring, Modern Art Foundry
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.b
Bourgeois' sculptures often blur distinctions between male and female sexual anatomy. As an art student in the 1940s, Bourgeois was influenced by Surrealism, an art movement inspired by the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Carl Jung (1875-1961). In their quest to visualize images that derive from the unconscious mind, Surrealist artists often depicted erotic or sexual imagery.
In many of Bourgeois' sculptures, such as the one in the ACT UP Art Box, an abstract shape may suggest a phallus, breast, or some combination of both. Bourgeois has commented that, as a wife and mother to three sons, she has witnessed the vulnerable side of masculinity. Accordingly, her gender-ambiguous sculptures articulate the idea that males have a feminine side and females may have a masculine side.
Ross Bleckner (American, born 1949)
Untitled, 1994
painted plastic, cord and metal hook
studio associates: Susie Kravets and Seth
Farris
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.a
One of the first American painters to address the AIDS epidemic in his art work, Bleckner introduced bird images into his vocabulary in the early 1990s in a series of paintings memorializing those who were HIV+ or had succumbed to AIDS. Shown amidst dark celestial skies, the birds were used as elegiac symbols associating death with the heavens.
As Bleckner is known for his paintings, his contribution to the ACT UP Art Box is a rare example of the artist working in a sculptural medium. He has painted the bird black to give the suggestion that its body is covered in tar, a poignant symbol for the loss of its freedom to fly.
Lorna Simpson (American, born 1960)
Untitled, 1994
Pyrex rods, lampworked and sandblasted,
text on recycled paper
glass fabricator: Kim Petro, The New York
Experimental Glass Workshop
Gift of ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art / San Antonio Gift of the Margaret Pace Willson Collection of Contemporary Art
94.26.e.1-3
Although Simpson usually works with the medium of photography, she departed from her usual format to create a pair of glass wishbones for the ACT UP Art Box. As is her custom with her photographic work, she also included a text component, a means of assisting viewers in understanding her message. In this instance, the common practice of breaking the wishbone, with the holder of the longer portion getting his or her wish, calls to mind the unpredictability of whether or not one will contract AIDS in a situation where one is at risk. Reinforcing this idea is the fragile glass itself, which serves as a poignant metaphor for the vulnerability of the human body.
(David Rubin, Label Text 2007)
Not on view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
