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Archives of American Art
Oral history interview with Jack Waters
Summary
- Collection ID:
- AAA.waters18
- Creators:
-
Waters, JackFialho, Alex, 1989-
- Dates:
-
2018 February 21-22
- Languages:
-
English.
- Physical Description:
-
4 Itemssound files (5 hr., 59 min.) Audiodigital, wav72 PagesTranscript
- Repository:
Scope and Contents
Scope and Contents
An interview with Jack Waters, conducted 2018 February 21 and 22, by Alex Fialho, for the Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project, at the Visual AIDS office in New York, New York.
Scope and Contents
Waters speaks of his early exposure to the arts through his family and their frequent visitors and boarders; the beginnings of his political consciousness, race consciousness, sex consciousness, and self-identity during the 1960s; his dance education at the Miquon School in Philadelphia; teaching at Miquon after briefly dancing in California; his dance and choreography education at the Julliard School and the Ailey School; his experience of the Lower East Side in the 1980s; the genesis and development of the Performing On One Leg collective; the start of the AIDS epidemic; collaborations with Gordon Kurtti and Brian Taylor, and their AIDS-related deaths; the importance of art-making and documentary practice during the AIDS epidemic; the beginning and development of his film and video work; collaborating with Peter Cramer on Black and White Study as both film and performance; receiving his HIV-positive diagnosis; the beginning and development of his work as a writer and journalist; his involvement in AIDS activist and queer activist organizations; a formative period in Ibiza during the fall 1983; his films The Male GaYze and Short Memory/No History; changes in queer activism he has observed since the 1980s, and the lack of historical memory about them; his experience of intergenerational queer dialogue; his involvement with Visual AIDS; and his thoughts on the idea of artistic legacy, both generally and in his particular case.
Biographical / Historical
Biographical / Historical
Jack Waters (1954- ) is a visual artist in New York, New York. Alex Fialho (1989- ) is a curator and arts writer and works as Programs Director for Visual AIDS in New York, New York.
Administration
Sponsor
Funded by the Keith Haring Foundation.
Existence and Location of Copies
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Digital Content
Using the Collection
System Details
Recorded on unknown recorder.
Related Materials
Related Materials
The Archives of American Art also holds the papers of First name Last name.
Keywords
Keyword Terms | Keyword Types | ||
---|---|---|---|
AIDS (Disease) and the arts | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
Filmmakers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
Performance artists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
Interviews | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project | Corporate Name | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
Archives of American Art
750 9th Street, NW
Victor Building, Suite 2200
Washington, D.C. 20001
https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions