Art Metropole

#11835

Gran Fury: Read My Lips

Date

2015

Publisher

80WSE

Format

Artists' Books

Size

10.5 × 8 inches

Length

74 pages

Genre

Art History, Catalogue

Gran Fury: Read My Lips is the first comprehensive catalogue on the AIDS activist art collective’s work from 1987–95. Naming itself after the Plymouth automobile model used by the New York City Police Department, Gran Fury made public projects that were simultaneously scathing, provocative, stylish and often funny. Gran Fury’s billboards, postcards, videos, posters and paintings raised public awareness of AIDS and put pressure on politicians, while sparking debate in sites ranging from the Illinois Senate to Italy’s tabloid press. Bridging the gap between Situationist site-specific art strategies, postmodern appropriation and Queer activism, the influential work of Gran Fury elucidates the political and collectivist art practices that flourished in 80s/90s downtown New York. This catalogue, designed by Gran Fury, is the first major publication solely devoted to their output. It reprints historical interviews between Gran Fury and Robert Gober, David Deitcher and Douglas Crimp, plus three never-before-published conversations by Gran Fury from late 2010. Read My Lips was created in conjunction with the retrospective curated by Michael Cohen and Gran Fury at NYU.