UNDETECTABLE
MARY WALLING BLACKBURN / ANDY CAMPBELL / DUOX / HELEN EPSTEIN CEVDET EREK / KENYON FARROW / ROBERT FLACK / CARL GEORGE ANN LAUTERBACH / LAMAR / BJARNE MELGAARD / LAURIE PARSONS BRADLEY PITTS / BENNY NEMEROFSKY RAMSAY / HEATHER ROWE RICHERT SCHNORR / SKOTE / CAREY YOUNG In 1985, the development of an antibody test for HIV established a dichotomy in the fields of health, sexuality, and politics: the categories of “positive” and “negative.” Ten years later, the advent of combination antiretroviral treatments enabled a reduction of a body’s viral load to levels that elude conventional testing, thus inaugurating a third form of status and a new concept in biopolitics: “undetectable.” Signifying a presence that is absent, predicated on suppression and surveillance, the undetectable occupies an indeterminate space and produces new modes of connectivity, at once increasing the capacity of a body and subjecting it to a relentless regime of control. LaMama LaGalleria / 6 East 1st Street, NYC / May 31 – June 30 2012 Curator: Nathan Lee / Assistant Curator: Rachel Cook / Produced by: Visual AIDS Opening Reception: Thursday, May 31, 2012 6:00 – 8:00 Saturday, June 16, 2:00 – 4:00 PM: Artist Talk & Curator Walk Curator Nathan Lee will be joined by select participating artists for an informal walkthrough of the exhibition and discussion of the project. Thursday, June 21, 6:00 – 7:30 PM: Helen Epstein and Kenyon Farrow A conversation between author Helen Epstein (The Invisible Cure) and writer and activist Kenyon Farrow will consider the problem of undetectability in relation to epidemiological and political factors. Friday, June 29, 7:00 – 9:00 PM: Performances by Mary Walling Blackburn and SKOTE As part of Mary Walling Blackburn’s work, Against Tenderness, the artist proposes to collectively translate a work by the pioneering queer theorist Guy Hocquenghem. This event will stage a reading of the completed translation, touching on Hocquenghem’s problems with tenderness. |
