Peter Hujar, David Wojnarowicz (Village Voice “Heartsick: Fear and Loving in the Gay Community”), 1983

Narrator: In this photograph by Peter Hujar, Wojnarowicz leans his head on the back of a chair, his face obscured. The image was used to illustrate an article in the Village Voice, describing the psychological impact the growing AIDS epidemic was having on the gay community. In 1985, the disease was mysterious: for example, scientists did not yet know that it was transmitted by HIV. The author of the article, Richard Goldstein, expressed the fear and frustration of not knowing what precautions could keep gay men safe. He also argued against what some thought to be the most surefire precaution—avoiding sex. He wrote:

“For gay men, sex, that most powerful instrument of attachment and arousal, is also an agent of communion, replacing an often hostile family and even shaping politics. It represents an ecstatic break with years of glances and guises, the furtive past we left behind.”

These words would likely have resonated with Wojnarowicz. Over the next decade—as he responded ever more explicitly to AIDS in his work—he also continued to insist on the beauty and liberatory force of queer desire.