Gran Fury

In 1989 Gran fury created the project “Kissing Doesn’t Kill”. This was a project wholly devoted to the AIDS crisis and to ending the stereotype upon homosexual individuals that came along side it, bringing acceptance and a celebration of their sexuality in support to Cindy Patton’s - a queer theorist in 1985 - comment that “AIDS must not be viewed as proof that sexual exploration and the elaboration of sexual community were mistakes...lesbian and gay men...must maintain that vision of sexual liberation that defines the last fifteen years of [our] activism.” Its aim was to bring awareness amongst the public and to address the society and governments’ turn of a blind eye to this great issue that society was facing. The title “kissing doesn’t kill” was to inform people and challenge the incorrect rumours that through kissing, AIDS can be transmitted. It became very apparent that the government, especially that of Chicago was not very concerned for the rights of equality and seemed very homophobic in their responses to Fury’s “kissing Doesn’t Kill” project. The project took on the methods of the media to help guide the issues Fury was putting across. Here he used the same layout and design of the famous “United Colours of Benetton” advertisements through the use of vivid colours and happy people stood side by side. This was to attract the audience’s attention through their recognition, but then for them to recognise that something isn’t quite right...The people in the image are kissing; People of different ethnicity and people of different sex. It also becomes apparent that two of the three pairs of people kissing are of the same sex. Which thinking back to how controversial that was in the ‘80’s/’90’s will have no doubt raised a brow and topic for debate and discussion. So success!

Above the image is written “Kissing doesn’t kill: Greed and Indifference do whilst underneath the image reads “Corporate greed, government inaction and public indifference makes aids a political crisis”. This was to raise one of the most important issues that Fury felt needed to be addressed. The images were placed around public areas including subway platforms, bus shelters, on billboards and on the sides of busses; this was so that people would think they were just ordinary adverts. Loring McAlpin who was a member of Fury’s group said that “We are trying to fight for attention as hard as Coca-Cola fights for attention”. The image became mass produced and widely spread, making appearances in music videos which were broadcast on MTV. Avram Finkelstein, who was another member of Fury’s group states that the project was successful due to putting “political information into environments where people are unaccustomed to finding it....It’s very different from being handed a leaflet where you automatically know someone’s trying to tell you something and you may not be receptive to hearing it. But when you’re walking down the street and your gazing at advertising...who knows what goes through you mind?”

This project ended up being very successful and noticed by a large audience including organisations and art galleries. Fury was invited to show his work in the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Venice Biennale due to they’re fondness of the topic and received funding for his project which meant that he could up-scale the work and afford to put the images on billboards and plaques. Once he had received this money it meant that it was difficult to remain within the public sphere and out of the “art world” and the organisers, AMFAR, which funded the project, asked that he remove the writing from the bottom of the image otherwise the project will be stopped completely. Censorship can be a common problem when producing art as activism, there seems to be a fear when something could be offensive, and this may be down to the now fashionable ability to sue individuals or groups.

Unfortunately through Fury’s acceptance to do this the images were misread and put into the context for as though they were supporting gay rights and their rights to kiss in public which lead to the politicians of Chicago prohibiting the work from coming into the city. Robert Shaw, the city alderman said that the image “has nothing to do with the cure for AIDS. It has something to do with a particular lifestyle, and I don’t think that is what the CTA (Chicago Transit Company) should be (in) the business of promoting” he also said that the image was “directed at children for the purposes of recruitment” and it therefore was not allowed to be shown anywhere that under 21 year olds could view it.

These images were humbly used in gay pride festivals to further protest for their rights and create awareness. The American Civil Liberties Union soon caught on and stood aside the gay and lesbian community to gain their rights. This worked and the posters were then allowed access to the cities areas but within 24 hours all but a few images had been destroyed by the public. This lead to a further recognition of the struggles that the homosexual community face and action was, and is, being sought to change this. There was press coverage and news reports on the event that meant the word was being spread even further, through this the images had a huge impact on the route to change.