Untitled (Buffalos)

David WojnarowiczWW-1988-044520

1988·Gelatin silver print·102.9 × 121.9 cm (40 1/2 × 48 in.)

<p><em>Untitled (Buffalos)</em> depicts a diorama from the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., of a traditional Native American hunting method in which plains bison were herded toward cliffs, forcing them to plunge to their death. Interdisciplinary artist David Wojnarowicz selectively framed a portion of the display in black and white as an allegory of the decade as he was dying of AIDS. At once analogy and piercing critique, the image embodies the tragedy of the pandemic and offers an indictment of a nation at odds with itself.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1988
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 102.9 × 121.9 cm (40 1/2 × 48 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: David Wojnarowicz

Artist

David Wojnarowicz

Photography

David Wojnarowicz was an American artist, filmmaker, and activist who worked across photography, painting, collage, and text to create urgent political interventions. His practice merged autobiographical narrative with documentary urgency, addressing homelessness, queer identity, and the AIDS crisis during the 1980s and early 1990s. Working in New York, he combined found materials, spray paint, and personal testimony in works that refused aesthetic distance from social catastrophe. His films and installations remain defining documents of postwar American dissent.

Red Bank, NJ, USA

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