BLOODY POSITIVE
'Bloody Positive' Shan Kelley for PosterVirus 2016, 12 x 18 in.
I’m dead tired of hearing how an entire pandemic can be reduced to a public health slogan.
I'm dead tired of being overmedicated and under-treated.
I’m dead tired of the expansiveness of the carceral state,  I’m dead from the ongoing tears of our indigenous sisters, our first peoples, and the genocide of their communities. I’m dead from the vilianization of people of colour, and I’m gutted by their systemic brutalization, their murder with impunity, and the vacuous thoughts and prayers that salt the wounded.  I’m dead that trans and non-binary still can’t so much as use a restroom without a court injunction, much less live in peace. I’m dead tired of dumbing down,  I’m dead tired of “stakeholders”, elected officials, poli-tricks, and being served platitudes that drive only apathy, instead of action. HIV can never exist in isolation, and I’m dead tired of feeling powerless against its entanglement in the fabric of our world.
PosterVirus is an ongoing Day With(out) Art, community-based activist, street and online art initiative, and affinity group of Toronto’s AIDS ACTION NOW! The curatorial project was developed collaboratively between Alexander McClelland and Jessica Whitbread to expand the limits imposed on how we can talk about AIDS. The posters have been shown internationally in a range of exhibits and on the streets of various cities.


Media links about the project:

https://www.poz.com/article/postervirus-returns

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/arts/art-and-hiv-this-powerful-public-poster-series-is-challenging-how-we-look-at-the-virus-1.3872496

https://filthydreams.wordpress.com/2016/12/04/dead-tired-of-being-so-bloody-positive-postervirus-reflects-aids-activism-now/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta5S7vvL6iw
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