Seattle, WA
United States
Capitol Hill Station Plaza & adjacent Cal Anderson Park Seattle AIDS Memorial Pathway since 26 June 2021
without names
With selection of artist Chris Jordan and preview works going up for Pride, AIDS Memorial Pathway moves forward connecting Capitol Hill Station to Cal Anderson
“I am trembling,” wrote Tacoma-based artist Christopher Paul Jordan on social media after the announcement that he had been selected from a pool of artists from all over the country to produce the centerpiece artwork for the AIDS Memorial Pathway. The pathway and plaza, expected to open in June 2020 along with the mixed-use, transit-oriented developments surrounding it, will connect Capitol Hill Station to Cal Anderson Park. When finished, the plaza will also host the weekly Capitol Hill Farmers Market.

In 2015, Jordan co-organized the die-in intervention #StopErasingBlackPeople at the Tacoma Art Museum in response to the lack of Black artists represented in the HIV/AIDS narrative of the museum’s exhibition Art AIDS America. In a statement, co-organizers of the Tacoma Action Collective said that the show painted “HIV as an issue faced predominantly by white gay men, when in fact the most at-risk group are currently black trans women.”
Jordan argues the HIV/AIDS crisis has been “historicized” too narrowly. His selection for the project, he said, is an opportunity to “honor and celebrate the lives that have been lost while speaking to the continued fight that must take place.”

What that will look like? “We have no idea (laughs),” said Jordan, whose art practice is rooted in community work. He did not want to speculate about what shape the work would take, or what medium he would use. He is planning a series of conversations and interviews with LGBTQ elders and communities impacted by the crisis — for example this June 8th at the Northwest African American Museum — and plans to develop the concept of the artwork with their input. [excerpt]

Photo © Margo Vansynghel Capitol Hill Seattle Blog

30 May 2019
Margo Vansynghel, Seattle, WA