A Fire in My Belly: A Film by David Wojnarowicz (Dec. 12th, 7pm)

Exhibitions

A Fire in My Belly, A Work In Progress (1986-87)
A screening of a film by David Wojnarowicz

Organized by Cole Akers

Sunday December 12th, 7pm

Workspace will screen the original 13-minute version of David Wojnarowicz’s “A Fire in My Belly, A Work in Progress (1986-87),” a film made in part as a response to the AIDS-related death of the artist’s colleague and lover Peter Hujar. A four-minute excerpt of the film was created for inclusion in the exhibition “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” curated by David C. Ward and Jonathan Katz at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. In late November 2010, Catholic League president Bill Donohue called the work an act of “hate speech” designed to insult Christians, and began to pressure the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to reconsider funding for the Smithsonian. In response to Donohue’s misreading of the film and threats of “tough scrutiny” from incoming House Speaker John Boehner, the Smithsonian removed the work from the exhibition on November 30, 2010.

DVD courtesy of The Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P.P.O.W Gallery, New York

7:15 – Screening
7:30 – Remarks by Jonathan Katz, co-curator of Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, National Portrait Gallery (via Skype)
Other speakers TBA