Joe Cotgrave: Bursary #4 update

Liverpool-based artist, Joe Cotgrave has completed his project at TATE Liverpool alongside the Keith Haring exhibition and explains how the CuratorSpace bursary helped him to develop his practice.

“My work focuses on exploring ways of rethinking HIV, its stigma, transmission and prevention, so I spent a lot of time producing various objects which could exist as vehicles for conversation to enable the public to learn about different aspects of HIV. These included cast pill shapes, which were based on the idea that people on effective HIV treatment cannot pass the virus on.

I organised a two day creative workshop at TATE Liverpool as part of the public programme for their recent Keith Haring exhibition. Here, the public was invited to create badges, posters and banners, enabling informal conversation about HIV and the stigma that surrounds it. Audiences also learned how HIV is cared for through Antiretroviral Therapy and how it can be managed through treatments such as PrEP and PeP.

The focal point of the workshop was a table I fabricated, which was based on the virus structure of HIV, creating a space for making, discussion and discovery. Creating work with audiences also gave me the opportunity to respond to their questions and input.

Alongside these workshops I invited Dan Glass from ACT UP London to discuss the correlation of art and activism and how these two aspects have combined to create change when looking at the history of HIV since the AIDs crisis.”

See more of Joe’s work here:
https://www.josephcotgrave.co.uk

 

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