seeds in a dying colony Screening

Floor 3, Theater

The Whitney Museum of American Art is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for the screening of seeds in a dying colony, a program of four newly commissioned videos that move through the afterlives of colonialism and the ongoing HIV epidemic. Across fractured histories and landscapes marked by extraction, the works trace how systems of power shape the body, memory, and experiences of care.

The program features newly commissioned work by: Edgar Hudson (Tanzania), Bruna Kury and Matheus Mello (Brazil/Spain), Sido Lansari (Morocco/France), and Micaela Cyrino (Brazil).

The films will screen on a continuous loop in the Hess Theater throughout the day.

During the film screenings, join us at 2pm for a presentation of artworks from the Whitney Museum’s collection and Visual AIDS Artist Registry led by Katherine “Kat” Cheairs: Lifetimes Pass in an Instant: HIV/AIDS in Contemporary American Art.

Inspired by artist Martin Wong’s quote from Psychic Bandits, “How many lifetimes pass in an instant?”, this talk by Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow Katherine Cheairs invites Whitney visitors to honor World AIDS Day by exploring artists impacted by HIV/AIDS and their responses to it. Cheairs will discuss work by several artists, including Darrel Ellis, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Miguel Ferrando, and Kia LaBeija. Although HIV/AIDS has transitioned into a long-term illness managed and prevented through medical advancements, it still remains a prescient topic as cuts to prevention and treatment in the US and internationally signal the precarity of those important gains. Artists have been central to activist organizing around the AIDS crisis since the 1980s. This talk aims to raise the visibility of those contributions and normalize the inclusion of HIV/AIDS narratives in the art historical canon.

Katherine “Kat” Cheairs, MFA, is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, educator, and researcher. Cheairs has appeared on panels and public programs at Pratt Institute, The New School, NYU, Vassar College, The Studio Museum in Harlem, BAM, The Aperture Foundation, Whitney Museum of American Art, and UnionDocs. Kat is a frequent collaborator on archival and video-based projects at the intersection of AIDS, art, and activism. Cheairs holds a BA in Political Science from Tufts University and an MFA in Film from the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University. Kat is a doctoral candidate in art and art education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where their research focuses on arts-based research, Black feminist theory, Black studies, queer theory, and affect studies. Cheairs currently serves on the board of Visual AIDS.

Visual AIDS is a New York-based nonprofit that utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy because AIDS is not over. Visual AIDS is a Whitney Education Community Partner.

Accessibility:  All Day With(out) Art films are captioned. CART closed captioning is available for presentation.