Silence = Death Project, _Silence = Death_, 1987. Courtesy the artists.
David Zwirner announces a new series of curated solo exhibitions, titled [More Life](https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/2021/more-life), opening June 24th and highlighting the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis through the lens of the gay male experience. Marking the 40th anniversary of the CDC’s report acknowledging what eventually would become known as AIDS, the series will focus on a selection of artists whose lives were cut short due to complications from the epidemic in the first twenty years.
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the gallery will present an exhibition centered on the iconic Silence=Death poster, alongside other agitprop work produced at the time. Three original posters will be on view and will be contextualized alongside a range of works that paint a picture of the birth of AIDS activism, largely drawn from the collection of Avram Finklestein, a founding member of the Silence=Death consciousness-raising collective. A limited-edition of the Silence=Death print will be available on [platformart.com](https://www.platformart.com), with proceeds benefiting [Visual AIDS](https://visualaids.org).
Production still from Marlon Riggs, _Tongues Untied_, 1989, video. Image courtesy of Signifyin' Works.
This series features the experimental film _Tongues Untied_ (1989) from documentarian, poet, activist and educator Marlon Riggs which deconstructed representations of black men and gay men with it’s unique collage-style arrangement. Visit the gallery’s 519 West 19th Street location in New York to see the iconic, yet at its time controversial, film.
Installation view of Derek Jarman’s _Blue_ (1993), taken during the final sound mix at De Lane Lea, Dean Street, London, in late 1992. Photo: Liam Daniel. Courtesy & © Basilisk Communications.
In another exhibition, the gallery presents the iconic film _Blue_ (1993) and alongside a selection of late paintings by the interdisciplinary British artist Derek Jarman. _Blue_ and the paintings produced by Jarman in this collection are in response to his HIV diagnosis in 1986, confronting his own morality and the broader sociopolitical climate of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Within the exhibition, the viewer confronts the soundtrack of music produced by Simon Turner for the film, and the disembodied voices of Tilda Swinton, Nigel Terry, John Quentin, and Jarman himself, who reads a haunting combination of the artist’s own poetry and autobiographical narratives from his hospital diaries.
Mark Morrisroe, _The Boy Next Door (Beautiful But Dumb)_, 1983. © Estate of Mark Morrisroe (Ringier Collection)
Also in the exhibition opening on June 24th, 2021 is Mark Morrisroe, curated by artist Ryan McGinley. Remembering a figure who lived and documented life at the periphery, Morrisroe produced work that examined queer kinship, the performance of gender, and the intimacy of risk through experimental mediums. The result were a series of distinctive and dreamlike prints that re-create what it would have been like living with a band of iconoclastic artists at the cusp of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The eight part exhibition series will open on June 24th, 2021 at the gallery’s locations in New York and London.
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