exhibition
DNR Xerox Project

About the exhibition

An AIDS-related collaborative installation organized by Spiral Arts.

The DNR Xerox Project is a collaborative installation, begun as a way to involve artists and people with AIDS (with and without formal art backgrounds) in a project that would call attention to the AIDS crisis.  It uses hospital Do Not Resuscitate forms as a backdrop onto which images associated with AIDS have been created.  Do Not Resuscitate forms are legal documents used in health care to indicate a patient's wish to be allowed to dies and not be needlessly resuscitated, eliminating the use of respirators or electric shock.  All People With AIDS (PWA) and/or their significant others are presented with a DNR form at some point in their treatment, and deciding to sign it is often a painful and unforgettable experience.  DNR forms are used to pay respect to and mourn for those we have lost as well as to express our rage at a system which continues to do little or nothing to end the AIDS crisis.  The DNR Xerox Project is ethnically and culturally divers; and showcases a range of artistic styles. Many of the artists involved have been infected with HIV and/or have lost friends and family members. Several of our artists have also died.  The DNR Xerox Project also incorporates the poems and journals of PWA writers.

AIDS/artifacts was founded in 1990 by Nicole Demerin and Keith Hanson to provide artist with a forum to create and exhibit work that responds to the AIDS crisis. In 1991, they began the DNR Xerox Project as well as to permanently archive artwork and writing from People With AIDS.

An archive of this project resides in the Kentler Flatfiles.