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Interviewee:
Harris, Lyle Ashton, 1965-  Search this
Interviewer:
Fialho, Alex, 1989-  Search this
Subject:
Baker, Houston A., Jr.  Search this
Barton, Nancy, (Artist)  Search this
Basquiat, Jean-Michel  Search this
Butler, Cornelia H.  Search this
Carby, Hazel V.  Search this
Collier, Jim  Search this
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.  Search this
Geer, Tommy  Search this
Goldin, Nan  Search this
Gonzalez-Torres, Felix  Search this
Gray, Todd  Search this
Grayson, John  Search this
Hemphill, Essex  Search this
Julien, Isaac  Search this
Lord, Catherine  Search this
Mapplethorpe, Robert (Robert Michael)  Search this
Mays, Vickie M.  Search this
O'Dench, Ellen  Search this
O'Meally, Jackie  Search this
O'Meally, Robert G.  Search this
Riggs, Marlon T.  Search this
Seeley, J.  Search this
Sekula, Allan  Search this
Tate, Greg  Search this
Tilton, Jack  Search this
Watson, Simon  Search this
Wilson, Millie  Search this
Woodman, Francesca  Search this
American Academy in Rome  Search this
California Institute of the Arts  Search this
Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project  Search this
Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.)  Search this
Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this
Type:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Place:
England -- London -- Description and travel
Ghana -- Description and travel
Netherlands -- Amsterdam -- Description and travel
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel
Tanzania -- Description and travel
Place of publication, production, or execution:
New York (State)
Physical Description:
6 Items, Sound recording: 6 sound files (8 hr., 6 min.), digital, wav; 95 Pages, Transcript
Summary:
An interview with Lyle Ashton Harris, conducted 2017 March 27 and 29, by Alex Fialho, for the Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project, at Harris's studio and home in New York, New York.
Harris speaks of his childhood in the Bronx; his family's influence on his race-consciousness; living in Tanzania for two years as a child and the effects on his understanding of race and sexuality; his grandfather's extensive photographic archive; contact with the South African diaspora through his step-father; attending Wesleyan University; formative experiences in London, Amsterdam, and New York in the mid-1980s; his education and development as a photographer; attending CalArts and encountering West Coast AIDS activism; encountering systemic racism in Los Angeles; close friendships with Marlon Riggs and Essex Hemphill; exhibitions of his work in New York in the early 1990s; the production of his Ektachrome Archive and his impulse to photograph daily life; his work on the Black Community AIDS Research and Education (Black C.A.R.E.) project in Los Angeles; participating in the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program; being diagnosed with HIV and remaining asymptomatic; attending the Dia Black Popular Culture Conference in 1992; photographing and mounting "The Good Life" in 1994 and "The Watering Hole" in 1996; issues of blackness and queerness in his photographic work; his residency at the American Academy in Rome in 2000; moving to Accra, Ghana for seven years in 2005; his pedagogy as an art professor; his thoughts on the lack of voices of color in the Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic Oral History Project and in the larger power structures of the art world; and his hope that his artistic legacy will be evaluated in its proper context. Harris also recalls Jackie and Robert O'Meally, Jay Seeley, Ellen O'Dench, Francesca Woodman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jim Collier, Robert Mapplethorpe, Allan Sekula, Hazel Carby, Isaac Julien, Catherine Lord, Millie Wilson, Todd Gray, John Grayson, Tommy Gear, Marlon Riggs, Essex Hemphill, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Nancy Barton, Vickie Mays, Connie Butler, Greg Tate, Henry Louis Gates, Houston Baker, Nan Goldin, Jack Tilton, Simon Watson, and others.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Lyle Ashton Harris, 2017 March 27-29. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Funding:
Funded by the Keith Haring Foundation.
Biography Note:
Lyle Ashton Harris (1965- ) is an artist who works in video, photography, and performance 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.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
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.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
AIDS activists  Search this
AIDS (Disease) and the arts  Search this
Racism  Search this
African American artists  Search this
Artists (LGBTQ)  Search this
Gay artists  Search this
African American art -- African influences  Search this
African American educators  Search this
African American photographers  Search this
Theme:
African American  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)17456
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)387759
AAA_collcode_harris17
Theme:
African American
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_387759