Flesh of My Flesh: Barry Blinderman and Daniel Berger on David Wojnarowicz [Video]

In July 2018 the Block Museum hosted “Films and Videos by David Wojnarowicz and Collaborators” a screening and conversation presented in partnership with Iceberg Projects in conjunction with the exhibition David Wojnarowicz: Flesh of My Flesh. (June 23 – August 4, 2018)

David Wojnarowicz is arguably one of the most important artists to emerge from the New York art world of the 1980s. While his work spanned less than twenty years–his life was cut short due to AIDS at the age of 37–from 1979 to 1992 he created a large body of work in collage, paintings, performances, sculpture, writing, and video. A series of moving-image works investigates Wojnarowicz’s aesthetics, iconography and personal, critical response to the political conditions of his time.

Following the film presentation, exhibition curator Dr. Daniel S. Berger hosted a conversation with recently retired director of University Galleries at Illinois State University, Barry Blinderman. Blinderman organized the artist’s first major museum retrospective, David Wojnarowicz: Tongues of Flame, in 1990. He had the rare experience of working with Wojnarowicz throughout the artist’s visits to Normal, Illinois, from 1989-1990, during which time Wojnarowicz created some of his most important late work. Their discussion included Blinderman’s experience of working with David Wojnarowicz during his lifetime and provided a view into Wojnarowicz’s practice and symbology, which remains starkly relevant today.

Dr. Daniel S. Berger is a leading HIV specialist in the United States and an active patron of the arts. He is co-editor of Militant Eroticism: The Art+Positive Archives and founder and director of Iceberg Projects, an alternative exhibition space in Chicago.

Watch the Discussion

Barry Blinderman and Daniel Berger on David Wojnarowicz from Block Museum on Vimeo.