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AIDS Quilt in Minneapolis
2012-Dec-01, Saturday 02:38 pmIt's been over 15 years since I last saw the AIDS Quilt. It's showing in Minneapolis this weekend, as part of today's World AIDS Day observance. It's housed in the same building where you find Wilde Roast Cafe along the Mississippi River. The quilt was brought here with the help of several organizations, including Minnesota AIDS Project.
They have more panels here than I expected. The quilt is too big (at 48,000 panels) for anyone to see the whole thing any more. It won't even fit on the national mall at Washington D.C. any more. So groups show a select few panels of the quilt instead.
With tightly limited space, this exhibition showed the panels hung up vertically. This format helps make more panels available for viewing, which is good. I think, though, that it's less effective at conveying the emotional weight of the quilt. Laid out on the ground like a death shroud, the viewer looks down to their feet at the strewn memories of lost lives. Hung up, though, the same panels seem more like "arts-and-crafts" on museum display. It also matters, I think, that the calendar dates on display are receding into the past instead of being fresh in the daily memory.
The selection on display here is very good. There are panels for drag queens and sports fans, hemophiliacs and newborn babies, and famous and unknown unlike.
I ran a search at the AIDS Quilt online, but I didn't find Carl Collier's name listed there. I doubt that his family would have made a panel for him. I don't remember us talking about me making a panel for him, but I'm pretty sure he would have been uninterested. I can imagine him saying, "I'd rather people spent their time finding a cure, instead." Sprinkled with an expletive or two, of course. :)
They have more panels here than I expected. The quilt is too big (at 48,000 panels) for anyone to see the whole thing any more. It won't even fit on the national mall at Washington D.C. any more. So groups show a select few panels of the quilt instead.
With tightly limited space, this exhibition showed the panels hung up vertically. This format helps make more panels available for viewing, which is good. I think, though, that it's less effective at conveying the emotional weight of the quilt. Laid out on the ground like a death shroud, the viewer looks down to their feet at the strewn memories of lost lives. Hung up, though, the same panels seem more like "arts-and-crafts" on museum display. It also matters, I think, that the calendar dates on display are receding into the past instead of being fresh in the daily memory.
The selection on display here is very good. There are panels for drag queens and sports fans, hemophiliacs and newborn babies, and famous and unknown unlike.
I ran a search at the AIDS Quilt online, but I didn't find Carl Collier's name listed there. I doubt that his family would have made a panel for him. I don't remember us talking about me making a panel for him, but I'm pretty sure he would have been uninterested. I can imagine him saying, "I'd rather people spent their time finding a cure, instead." Sprinkled with an expletive or two, of course. :)