POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Notes

Hand painted by David McDiarmid Designed and made by David McDiarmid, New York, 1984. The design for the bed sheet paintings were inspired by New York hip-hop and street culture and the Hispanic boys that David had slept with (their names are incorporated into some of the other sheets in the series). 'Heart and hand', the title of this bed sheet was the proposed name of the textile company McDiarmid planned to establish. The sheets were autobiographical works. David McDiarmid (1952-1995) David McDiarmid (1952-1995). Studied film (& design*) at RMIT. Australian artist and outspoken AIDS activist. Looked at love, art and life in the age of HIV. By 1994, more than 3380 people had died in Australia from AIDS-related illnesses (SMH 26/11/1994 ARTS p7). The AIDS epidemic was the focus of McDiarmid's creative output. His designs for the highly effective ACON Safe Sex posters and postcards in 1992 established him as one of Australia's most outstanding activist artists. His art and graphic designs were core to the war against intolerance and prejudice against gays and against people with AIDS. As the death toll from the AIDS epidemic rose, his work became defiant, graphically explicit and humorous. McDiarmid worked to build an identity and to improve the self-esteem of members of the gay community in Sydney, as well as helping many at the same time cope with the crisis of death and dying in the age of HIV. He himself died of AIDS on 25 May 1995. McDiarmid was art director of the Sydney Mardi Gras workshops from 1988 to 1990. He worked in mixed media and experimented with new materials and technologies eg holograms and computer graphics. McDiarmid also collaborated closely with the Australian designer, Linda Jackson. The textile folder in the collection contains many of the textile designs he produced for Linda when he was working in New York from 1979 to 1988. * Ted Gott, Curator, Museum of Modern Art at Heidi, Victoria is undertaking research into the life and work of David McDiarmid.