The William Benton Museum of Art, at University of Connecticut, holds one photograph by David Wojnarowicz: Untitled (Buffalos), 1988–89, a Gelatin silver print.
The Benton Museum curators write: “While seemingly unrelated to the AIDS epidemic that plagued the country in the 1980s, Wojnarowicz’s piece has been described as one of his most powerful responses to the crisis. With little information provided, all the viewer sees is a herd of buffalo falling from a cliff to their inevitable demise. The scene is actually from a diorama found in a museum in Washington, D.C., and depicts an early Native American hunting technique. Without the contextual information for this photograph, the viewer is left to focus on the tragedy and sense of hopelessness the scene evokes. The piece can be seen as the artist’s response to his own AIDS diagnosis, as he draws a parallel between the sense of doom evoked by AIDS (queer people feeling like an “endangered species”) and the wholesale extermination of the buffalo. After a short, but important, artistic career that focused on giving voices to those marginalized by society, Wojnarowicz died of AIDS-related illness in 1992.”
180 Main Street
Andover MA 01810
www.benton.uconn.edu
