Image by Ji Yang
presented as part of Queer, Ill + Okay (2015) at the DCASE Storefront Theater. See more about the Queer, Ill + Okay series here.
Dressed in a 1940s nursing uniform, I performed a work that reflects on the role of caregivers during the AIDS crisis. My performance revealed what it was like to care for my friend Matthew during his final months of illness and its lasting effect on me. I aimed to manifest perspectives of a witness, queer ally, caregiver, and a champion of the good death with the poignancy of expected loss alongside immeasurable gain from lived relationships. Drawing on memory, crafted and sentimental objects, my performance intervened into cultural narratives on loss and illness.
Read a review of the performance here by Conor Moynihan.
JOAN GIROUX Joan Giroux is an interdisciplinary artist, activist and educator who has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally, and received numerous grants and residencies. In her recent body of work, she translates aspects of caregiving in domestic and institutional settings to frame reflections on diminishment, frailty, vulnerability, loss and death. In “Life review: sacrifice best what is not yours,” she unpacks why she moved to Berlin in 1987, where she lived on and off until 1993. The work is inspired by a deep connection with her friend, artist Matthew Ranger, diagnosed at a time when living with HIV and AIDS had not yet been made possible. | QUEER, ILL, + OKAY is an annual multidisciplinary performance series exploring, challenging, and reinventing narratives about the lives of queer individuals and their relationships to HIV and other forms of mental and chronic illness. In 2013 Joseph Varisco, Creative Director of JRV MAJESTY Productions began the series after being diagnosed as HIV+. He realized that we all know someone whose life has been impacted by illness and turned to his artistic communities to further understand the relationship between queerness, the body, and chronic illness. FEATURING: SKY CUBACUB | AMIR RABIYAH | JOAN GIROUX | ALLIE SHYER | OLI RODRIGUEZ | SCOTT ARTLEY | IREASHIA MONÉT | DONNELL WILLIAMS QUEER, ILL, + OKAY appeared at the DCASE Storefront Theater in partnership with the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), the ADA's 25th Anniversary, and The Inconvenience. QIO first appeared for Poonie's Cabaret at Links Hall in October 2013 and at DfbrL8r Performing Arts Gallery in July 2014 to sold out houses. Educational workshops and community conversations were added in partnership with Howard Brown Health Center to provide information and resources about living with chronic illness. Since first appearing QIO has reached over 1500 artists and audience members. In 2015 QIO was awarded grants from Visual AIDS and through fiscal sponsorship with Links Hall, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to introduce a third year of new original work.