You Killed Me First, installation view, 1985.

James Romberger - artist, gallerist, writer and collaborator with David Wojnarowicz during the salad days of the East Village - was prompted by the current censorship of "A Fire In My Belly" to pen an eloquent analysis and remembrance of his friend. Wojnarowicz’s Apostasy http://www.tcj.com/hoodedutilitarian/2010/12/wojnarowiczs-apostacy/ is an essential read.

David Wojnarowicz "A Fire in My Belly" Original from ppow_gallery on Vimeo.

December 16, 2010. The above is taken from the Vimeo page of PPOW Gallery and from the archives of NYU's Fales Library. It represents two segments, of approximately 13 and 7 minutes, that David Wojnarowicz shot and edited on Super 8 in 1986-87, which he entitled "A Fire In My Belly". It is NOT the four minute piece that was yanked from the National Portrait Gallery show on December 1. It is also NOT the video I posted earlier on this blog, with its Diamanda Galas banshee wail/dirge of "Unclean". Nor the segment I have seen with an overlaid soundtrack of a 1980s ACT UP demonstration. Wojnarowicz shot and presented his original footage without sound, a suggestion of the urgency and severity of the political climate that led to the mantra of "Silence = Death".

It is two weeks since the "silencing" of "A Fire In My Belly", and as we near Sunday's rally on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum, it's clear that the culture wars are by no means over. This is hardly news to anyone following the hurtful antics of the Tea Party. Ever more empowered by their victories in the midterm election, the same purveyors of fear and purposeful obfuscation who demonized Obama for the past two years are trying to legislate and coerce the cultural landscape, to make art conform to their hypocritical and faux Christian yardstick. The fact that their cynical misunderstanding and bad intentions AGAIN fall directly on Wojnarowicz's shoulders is testimony to the enduring raw, elemental, and confrontational power of his art. Although the forces of reaction and censorship will always find something to belittle and attempt to repress, we almost have to thank them for forcing the issue and focusing attention on work that especially needs to be discussed and re-evaluated right now, as an antidote to right wing resurgence.

New Yorkers who want to protest the censorship of David Wojnarowicz’s video at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. get their chance on December 19. Organizers have called a march, gathering at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and concluding at the Cooper-Hewitt on 91st Street (like the National Portrait Gallery, the C-H is a Smithsonian Institution).

Protest Sunday, December 19 at 1:00 PM in New York City and take collective action for free expression.

GATHER on the Metropolitan Museum steps Fifth Ave. & 82nd Street

Then MARCH to the Cooper-Hewitt/Smithsonian FIFTH Ave. & 91st Street

from Bloomberg.com:

Tate Modern reopened a Richard Prince room that was temporarily closed on Sept. 30 for showing “Spiritual America” (1983), an image of Brooke Shields as an undressed child. The work has been replaced.

ONE NIGHT STAND : ANONYMOUS ART SHOW

What would do if you could do anything you wanted and knew you could get away with it?

Forwarding along from our good friends at Lumpen.org in Chicago.

Many of you may already be aware of the situation but for those who do not please read, pass and forward.

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An Iraqi born artist, now US citizen, Wafaa Bilal's ( http://wafaabilal.com ) work was shut down at the West Hall Art Department Gallery and will now be reopened tomorrow (March 11), but conservative public pressure threatens to close it once again.