AIDS
Art by Jane Turner (Jlily's Art), "THE EATONVILLE ARTIST"
AIDS 1997
There are far too many funerals in my community because of the Aids pandemic. Yesterday we buried Mary, age 35. The homegoing for Jamal, age 17, is today. Tomorrow we will send home Collen, age 2. Jane Turner
The AIDs pandemic has spread throughout the globe, and has the world spinning out of control. It is indiscriminate to race, ethnicity or national boundaries. It has no respect for age or gender. In 1981, the virus was first identified in the U.S. and given the name, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). It's origin in the U.S., was first in the male homosexual community. However, in Africa, it was identified within the heterosexual population. The monkey in the painting alludes to the "Green Monkey Theory", that in Africa, the disease was laboratory generated and tested on the green monkey. An infected green monkey escaped, spreading the disease among a population of monkies, that were considered by certain African tribes to be delicacies and were ingested, alas, the infection.
The painting is my attempt to depict the early history of Aids and it's spread. The painting addresses the homosexual/heterosexual liaison which facilitated the speedy spread of the disease. The use of illicit drugs, the sharing of hypodermic needles, the tainted blood supply used in medical transfusions, and the birth and death of infected babies and children.
Initially, the search for a cure for the virus was ignored, or moved at a snails pace. The disease was considered a "homosexual disease" in the U.S. and therefore was not taken seriously. With the delay in research, the virus loomed out of control. It has created a generation of orphans in some countries. This includes our own country, as people continue to be infected in alarming numbers. The fastest growing infected population is our adolescent.
This is a social disease that can be controlled by practicing safe sex or abstinence.
This painting is dedicated to my friend and co-worker, Alfonso D., as his name is being stitched into the Memory Quilt. It is also dedicated to the many nameless faces on the globe that are ravaged and are being taken daily, by this unforgiving pandemic. Do not forget, there is still much work to be done to soothe the suffering and loss affecting us all. None of us is safe from this virus until we are all safe and AIDS has been eradicated.
Jane Turner
AIDS 1997
Oil on canvas, 36"x48" copyright 1997, Cat.#101997
