Yes, Dr. Donahue, We ARE Saying You’re Crazy.
I don’t go to museums any more than any Americans do.”
questioning why the Smithsonian receives federal funding, December 2010
Back in December 2010 the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) opened its exhibit, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.” Described by NPG as “the first major museum exhibition focusing on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture.” Given the political environment the NPG lives in, this was a remarkable occurrence, and privately funded to boot.
One particular piece in the exhibition, an NPG-edited video by David Wojnarowicz [Vo na ROH vich] (d. 1992) titled A Fire In My Belly (1986-1987). The four minute version, edited from a 20 minute unfinished video, depicted Wojnarowicz’s highly surrealistic tribute to his partner who died of AIDS-related complications, and, as well, a meditation on his own infection with AIDS. The film shows very quick glimpses of challenging and, at times, disturbing images, including a meatpacking plant; various objects on fire; coins falling into a bleeding, bandaged hand; halves of a loaf of bread being sewn together; and a man’s lips being sewn shut.
Those images did not excite controversy. It was 11 seconds at the beginning of the film that depicts ants crawling on a crucifix One observer analyzed the 11 seconds, “A crucifix is besieged by ants that evoke frantic souls scurrying in panic as a seemingly impassive God looked on.”
