Glitching the Archive

This current work is inspired by Francisco Ibáñez-Carras’s 2021 CRBC conference presentation The Normal that Never Was. Ibáñez-Carras points to the white washing of HIV research which often does not pay homage to the lives lost prior to the mainstreaming of HIV research. For this reason, it was important for this work to reference the history of activism that fades from cultural memory. Ibanez-Carras makes some strong points in his conference presentation regarding how queerness has been mainstreamed by the heteronormative and neoliberal legitimization of HIV research. He states it is a survival mechanism so that the research could occur in the first place. In reflecting on the changing players of HIV activism and research in North America, Jesse brings forward the imagery of AIDs activism of the 80s and early 90s. This all overlaps with questions of how the continued institutionalization of HIV separates research from its historic communities, how do we layer the history of an epidemic on to the history of oppressed cultures, and how do we engage in the new realities of HIV activism in the face of so much change. 

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Jesse Blanchard

Jesse Blanchard is a visual artist. Early on Jesse began making comics, which were crudely drawn and inspired by the underground comics made in the 70s. Their comics were very personal and overly familiar. This approach to creating has extended into a larger artistic practice that now encompasses large paintings, weird videos and geometric faux fur blobs. Working within these mediums are an attempt to make art playful, to bring some joy and humour into the art object, in spite of the darkness their work often deals with.