Explosive Agendas: Somatic Landscapes

Thomas Avena & Adam Klein
Tuesday, June 20, 2000
7:30 pm
Location: SomArts, 934 Brannan @ 8th Street
Tickets: $10, Qcc

In the art of Jerome Caja, Thomas Plageman and Charles Sexton the dynamics of disease, like nature itself, is harnessed for regenerative and creative ends. Herein lies some of the more disturbing and explosive aspects of their work: that disease can ever be harnessed for a purpose, let alone one as vital as the reclamation of the human imprint, the potency of human spirit. We will attempt to explore how “AIDS Art” in its brutal, and sometimes surprisingly mordant manifestations, aligns itself closely with the themes that have imbued great art throughout the ages. Rather than seeing this work as confined to a specific historical set of circumstances, such powerful images continue to draw a portrait of the human psyche, wherein there is no true separation between death and the possibility of creation.