FOUL! Visual AIDS strikes out in new broadside. (long version)
(a few months ago the blog, the new gay, published an article I wrote about Visual AIDS’s latest work PLAY SMART. In the months since I feel I may have made a mistake in editing it so provide her the longer version with more context. t.k.)
FOUL! Visual AIDS strikes out in new broadside.
It would have been easy to quickly criticize PLAY SMART - the new broadside by Visual AIDS. But based on the great work of Visual AIDS and having interned with them so knowing the people involved I felt a longer piece was needed with more information about the work, past broadsides and a conversation around why I find the current work problematic. Along the way focusing on PLAY SMART brings up questions about HIV and gay men’s health campaigns in general- do we expect too much from them? Is any campaign capable of delivering messages that capture people’s attention without negatively contributing to the foundational factors that lead to poor health outcomes? How can a campaign keep its integrity intact in an interconnected world where context and intent may be erased by dissemination far beyond its targeted audience? How do we communicate the fact that no campaign can do everything for everyone? While I am not able to answer these questions alone I do offer up my take on PLAY SMART.
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Every year New York based Visual AIDS (VA)- ‘the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to HIV prevention and AIDS awareness through producing and presenting visual art projects’- unveils 2 new broadside projects created in concert with different visual artists to promote “harm reduction, HIV prevention and AIDS awareness” to diverse audiences. According to visualaids.org, “Broadsides are a creative response to the lack of provocative and frank HIV-prevention messages in our city and nationally”.
Of the broadsides being released this year is a trading card project called PLAY SMART with photographers Aaron Cobbett, inkedKenny, Greg Mitchell, and Slava Mogutin created in consultation with Dr. Demetre Daskalakis at the NYC based M*SHP (The Men’s Sexual Health Project). Each photographer created a set of trading cards. As is the form, each trading card is double sided, one side featuring a photo of a man in sports drag and the other side communicating ‘stats’. Rather than ‘player’ information the PLAY SMART trading cards feature the ‘new rules’ of what Daskalakis calls “Smart Sex” which include: using a condom, getting tested, talking about HIV / sex with friends, partners and doctors, and getting information on PEP. Designed specifically to be given out at clinics Daskalakis runs within NYC sex clubs, it was thought that the trading card size, and sex-positive sporty motif would ensure people picked up and retained the cards as well as absorbed the information provided.
VA’s Associate Director Nelson Santos says they are learning from every broadside they do- broadsides go back as late as 1995 and were re-invigorated 5 years ago. Working with health, community, and art frameworks in mind can be challenging- having to keep conflicting priorities, differing cultures and whom each framework answers to in sensible balance. For the broadsides it is important to ensure the integrity of the art is maintained to differentiate them and the work of VA from social marketing campaigns and the work of AIDS service organizations. For this reason VA limits the amount of direction given to the contributing artists, as Santos says, “allowing the artists to express themselves directly.” He remarks that in the past many artists tried to fit their work into HIV prevention, AIDS awareness frameworks and not always comfortably.
Currently PLAY SMART is being critiqued by Visual AIDS supporters like myself, and other community members. According to Amy Sadao, Executive Director of Visual AIDS, some early push back on the broadsides came from a NYC POZ activist who asked after reading the name of the trading cards, “What? Am I having Dumb Sex? Are you calling me dumb?” As Sadao and Santos explain PLAY SMART - as the Broadside theme and name emerged after the trading card size and sports motif were decided upon and seemed to invigorate the conversation of ‘safer sex’ based on Daskalakis’s idea of ‘smart sex’. As Santos recalls, “Using the word “smart” instead of “safe” was a way of refreshing the concept. People seem to tune out the words “safer sex”… but “smart” was a different way of thinking how to play, like using the proper equipment or talking to your teammate so you know what’s going on ‘on the field’.” Sadao says she hears the critique and as with everything pertaining to the campaign is under consideration as VA thinks of how to roll out of the second phase of the trading cards.
For me the issue with the PLAY SMART trading cards is around imagery and how the narrow focus of who is being ‘traded’ plays into foundational issues of poor health outcomes for many men who have sex with men.
While each set is well executed, and distinct in artistic style there is - in my mind an unhelpful similarity in content in relation to gay men’s health – all feature fit, able-bodied, predominantly white, men. As those involved in gay men’s health work with minoritized and racialized men who have sex with men can tell you being able to navigate condom usage, talk about HIV / AIDS with friends, family and doctors and accessing PEP is often a point of privilege based on race, class, ‘attractiveness / desirability’ and other factors. These factors of diversity are not represented in the cards. If anything they work against social factors we know to be true; HIV rates among visual minority men who have sex with men is disproportionately higher than their white counterparts; racism, classism, sizeism, ableism all factor into sexual negotiation dynamics. So while the information on the cards is very helpful the images of the card may prevent someone from thinking that the cards are for them, or worse- may work to reinforce poor self esteem, heighten senses of not belonging and ensure that the information is never obtained or retained by the intended audience. These cards - aside from being culturally and otherwise insensitive also play into the tyranny of the image of the fit white male as the dominate ideal of who is gay, who gets to have gay sex and who can / should be desired and protected.
For the PLAY SMART broadside Santos explains, Visual AIDS “ only asked the photographers to create sexy, sporty images. We did not direct their concepts or selection models. ” As Sadao remembers, in early conversation around the visual images, ” we broadly talked about asking photographers working in traditions of pinup, glamour, homoerotic. We didn’t define these as stable terms and at the time didn’t unpack them with regards to historically defined ideals. We didn’t look specifically seek out photographers who challenged dominant ideas of sexy. ” – which is too bad. The campaign has its strengths but the supremacy of white bodies is such that it rules out other conversations. We can’t talk about condom use if you don’t talk about social isolation, we can’t discuss the need for frank discussion of sexuality unless the cultural differences around sexuality are on the table.
For me, as someone who has worked on ‘message’ campaigns hearing VA’s frankness in not directing the message makes me shit my pants. But then I remember that VA is not an ASO - it is a contemporary art organization - what they do, their mandate is different and their approach reflects that. Their hands off approach serves them well. Visual AIDS disseminates unique and engaging work and is committed to working with a cross section of artists including those living with HIV and AIDS. Among the artists VA works with is an impressive list including Hunter Reynolds, Nayland Blake, Amy Jean Porter, Derek Jackson, and Kate Huh. The collected work of the broadsides over the past 15 years is politically, sexually and culturally diverse stretching across the spectrum of who is impacted and what is impacted by HIV / AIDS in New York City and State. Their way of working with talent has allowed artists to self direct their learning, express honest thoughts, challenging questions, interesting concerns and sometimes troubling reactions to HIV / AIDS and has ensured audience response comes as much from the sheer artistry of the work as the messages. This of course is Visual AIDS success. It does not ‘use’ art to talk about HIV / AIDS. It facilitates the creation or art and art based conversations around HIV / AIDS for real discussions and peer to peer information sharing. Rather than be didactic, prescriptive Visual AIDS works in a queer way allowing feelings, responses and points of view inform a conversation about sexual health. With this in mind if one is able to look at PLAY SMART beyond its problematic images one can see that in a way the broadsides project is a holistic approach to gay men’s health and it is advocating for a holistic approach to HIV / STI prevention. By using a sports theme the broadsides could be understood as suggesting ‘smart sex’ is a lifestyle choice, taking care of your body is not just about getting fit but also condom use, getting tested ect.
What is interesting to note for Sadao and Santos is that this is the first VA broadside that has primarily used mainstream sexiness targeted at gay men. This is made all the more fascinating when one considers that the VA office is deep in the heart of Chelsea - blocks away from gym bunnies and leather daddies cruising down 8th. The desire to use blatant sexiness says Sadao comes in part from emerging out of 8 years of abstinence only sex education under President Bush - a cultural nuance that gets lost when the campaign is viewed in other countries (such as myself in Canada). As Sadao jokes whenever her and Santos see campaigns they really like it often turns out they are often from the UK, Australia and Canada. In speaking with them it feels as though being able to create something that stands with this work is a badge of honor for Visual AIDS. For me I see it in a way as a step back – a journey I thought Visual AIDS never had to take. The rawness of Ginger Brooks Takahashi’s Lick this Pussy is sexy and challenging in a way that asks me to consider the impact of HIV on women and invites me imagine the heat of the described oral encounter. J.Morrison’s AIDS is Not Over handbag, using the same font as Lennon / Ono’s War is Over is a politically savvy comment connecting the anti-war movement along with the possible optimism of the peace movement with the reality of current wars and HIV rates. The bag does double duty in creating awareness but also commenting on the interconnection of seemingly disparate issues- war and AIDS.
In the end PLAY SMART falls short. It is just sexy. It is just eye catching. And maybe this is what is needed for the target audience in New York sex clubs. I don’t know. What I can concede is that it is impossible for any one campaign to do all the work that is needed and unfortunately taken out of context PLAY SMART may actually make for more work. Celebrating the male form and being sex positive are much need in gay men’s work. What is not needed are messages - intended or not - that silence, disappear and under mind bodies already repressed and undervalued in society and often further within gay communities.
Visual AIDS is an amazing, thoughtful, proactive organization that has lead the way in how art can galvanize energy and ideas around HIV / AIDS. PLAY SMART , in my mind does not represent the best of what VA can do - but along the way does raise valuable questions about limits and expectations of campaigns. If I can venture a guess I would say that Visual AIDS has taken a hit on this one, will go back to the locker room to regroup and will come out swinging better than ever next time.
contributor bio: Ted Kerr is a writer, artist and activist with a focus on HIV / AIDS, queerness and expression. He was HIV Edmonton’s first Artist in Residence and currently contributes to Queermonton - a column about queer life in Edmonton for VUE Weekly.
