Through Positive Eyes

September 15, 2019–February 16, 2020

Through Positive Eyes is a large-scale photography and storytelling project created in collaboration with more than 130 people living with HIV/AIDS. The exhibition includes photography and video by artist-activists from 10 cities across the globe and a sculpture installation by Los Angeles–based multimedia artist Alison Saar. Combined, these works conjure a broad picture of the epidemic—ranging from everyday imagery to more abstract meditations on joy, grief, solitude, and resilience. Public programs will incorporate live storytelling in the gallery performed twice weekly by seven HIV-positive Angelenos known as the Los Angeles Through Positive Eyes Collective. This multitude of perspectives and voices coalesce around one core tenet: a belief that challenging stigma against people living with HIV/AIDS is the most effective method for combating the epidemic.

PRESS RELEASE: Through Positive Eyes

Credits

Through Positive Eyes is organized by the UCLA Art & Global Health Center with the Fowler Museum at UCLA and cocurated by David Gere, Director, UCLA Art & Global Health Center, Professor of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA, and founder of MAKE ART/STOP AIDS; Carol Brown, independent curator; Stan Pressner, lighting designer; and Ross Levinson, soundscape composer. The exhibition is made possible by major funding from the Herb Ritts Foundation. It is also supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and a gift from Elizabeth and Graeme Gilfillan in honor of Sarah Gilfillan.

The Through Positive Eyes project is codirected by David Gere and London-based South African photographer and AIDS activist Gideon Mendel.