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My piece, The Writing on the Wal [NYC, 1991] is inspired by my life as an art student in New York City during the early 1990's. This period was one of fascination, beauty, and horror for me. As much as I was intoxicated by the culture and people I encountered on a daily basis, I was equally horrified by the wave of death washing through the LGBTQ+ community due to AIDS. Anger over the lack of response from government and mainstream media, to this plague, was flowing onto the streets in the form of protests, “disturbances”, and “die-ins”. One of my most vivid memories, from this time, is of the outside surfaces of downtown Manhattan, which seemed to be covered with posters of every sort. This signage reflected the stark duality of the time - of life and death – of culture and politics - where the horror of the AIDS epidemic and the fight against death coexisted with the unceasing drive to create new life in the form of art and culture.

Julien Tomasello

julientomasello@gmail.com