David Wojnarowicz was one of most devastating and blistering chroniclers of the AIDS crisis in New York in the 80s. His memoir of the time, Close to the Knives, is one of the most moving and damning collections of writing of the time, taking in everything from the death of David’s partner, the photographer Peter Hujar, his period spent living on the streets of New York, it takes in suicide, police brutality, prejudice, desire, death. As well as incredible writer and artist, he was a dedicated activist, famously wearing a jacket emblazoned with “If I die of AIDS forget burial just drop my body on the steps of the FDA” to a protest in 1988, a slogan that became immortalised in a photograph of David.
Now Loewe is paying tribute to David’s legacy with a limited edition T-shirt capsule collection of his work, with all the money raised going to support Visual AIDS, a non-profit organisation that uses art to provoke, inform and support HIV+ artists. The project is launching today with an event at Printed Matter in New York. The T-shirts will also be available at loewe.com and Visual AIDS online, Dover Street Market (London and Tokyo), and at Printed Matter and the P.P.O.W. Gallery in New York, as well as a number of LOEWE selected stores for £75.
The images selected highlight the diversity and power of David’s work; from a silkscreen of Jean Genet masturbating in Prison, to the ferocious anger of his print One Day This Boy… which details homophobic abuse gay people face. Loewe will also stage an exhibition of David’s work, alongside that of his partner Peter Hujar, at PhotoEspana in Madrid between June to 26 August.
