Culture: David Wojnarowicz: An AIDS victim still caught in the culture wars
- (Note: The video above contains disturbing images and is NSFW.) In the wake of “A Fire in My Belly” getting removed from the Smithsonian for its imagery of Jesus covered in ants, The Washington Post has a very heartfelt essay on the man who created it, David Wojnarowicz. Wojnarowicz, who died of AIDS in 1992, was an artist at the height of the culture wars who often found his work being co-opted by those who disliked it – which, most notably, led to him suing the American Family Association for misrepresenting his work. The man who pressured the Smithsonian to remove “A Fire in My Belly,” William Donohue of the Catholic League, has a long history of complaining about things he doesn’t like. It’s too bad, though, that the man who created these images – a complex figure to put it lightly (just watch the clip above, as powerful and emotionally affecting as it is difficult to watch) – was lost in the middle. source