David Wojnarowicz

Aperture, New York

Acquired from the above in 1994 by the present owner

David Wojnarowicz, Close to the Knives (New York, 1991), cover

David Breslin and David Kiehl, David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night (New York: The Whitney Museum of American Art, 2018), pl. 125

David Wojnarowicz photographed this diorama at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Displaying a traditional Native American herding practice, the scene shows buffalo, typically robust creatures, rushing headlong to hurl themselves over a cliff edge. As one of his most powerful visual protests, the work takes on allegorical meaning when viewed with the knowledge of Wojnarowicz's own devastating AIDS diagnosis during the epidemic. Wojnarowicz links the near-extermination of American buffalo in the 1800s with the government’s failure to adequately address the AIDS crisis.