BODY POLITIC : Life, Death and Censorship

When the staff at the AIDS clinic at the L.A. County-USC Medical Center decided last year to fill its walls with art done by patients, they figured they were doing everyone a favor. Certainly, no one would miss the lovely framed charts on needle safety and animal sculptures made of gumdrops. But they hadn’t counted on the disturbing nature of some of the art, which caused a Mapplethorpian controversy that resulted in a shake-up on the L.A. County Commission on AIDS.

Patient Steve Monroe was at the center of the maelstrom. He contributed 10 works--figures of crucified priests and nuns and battered gang members. “Art is my way of venting and then healing my feelings about AIDS,” he says. “Jesus Christ did not have a monopoly on the cross. This is my way of showing how everyone suffers.”

Last spring, Jennie Reyes, then the commission’s vice chair, saw his works and some paintings by Daniel Salazar and ordered them removed. “To nail a nun to a crucifix is an insult to the church and the Hispanic community that looks to the crucifix for its faith,” says Reyes, who lost her son, Eddie, to AIDS in 1987. “The crosses are sacrilegious and insensitive.”

The coalition that oversees the clinic’s art protested Reyes’ decision, contending that no patients had complained, and appealed to County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who had appointed Reyes to the panel. Molina then asked for and received Reyes’ resignation.

But the debate over how to handle the controversial art continued until last month, when the coalition decided to relegate it to a separate room labeled with cautionary signs.

“It’s important that artists with AIDS experience the repair of self-esteem that occurs when their work is displayed,” says Roger Arthur, head of the clinic’s arts coalition. “We realize that some of the work may not be very pretty, like the disease itself. At the same time, displaying it can elevate a person’s desire to live.”