In 1986, a group of friends, including AIDS activist Cleve Jones, gathered in San Francisco and began to stitch the beginnings of what would become the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, created to remember those who died from this new mysterious and deadly disease. As people from around the country began to send in their own panels to add to the quilt, it grew to become the largest community-based art project in the world.
The art exhibition “Living Room, San Francisco, 1986” recreates the early days of the historic quilt and also includes work from contemporary artists addressing issues of HIV and AIDS. The show is on view at the Fulton County Emma Darnell Aviation Museum & Conference Center.
Artist and curator Matt Terrell worked with his longtime collaborator, George Faughnan, to design and construct a monumental structure in the middle of the gallery to showcase four AIDS Quilts. Terrell and Faughnan built 13-foot tall walls to mount the quilts on, just barely squeezing the structure into the gallery, which gives the quilts an epic and imposing quality. These quilts were made between 1987 and 2002, with one made in honor of the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus and another in honor of the late artist Keith Haring.
A fifth AIDS quilt, which had been badly damaged over the years, is mounted on a gallery wall and includes information about how the quilts are repaired in-between showings.
In this interview, Matt Terrell joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to talk more about the exhibit.
