A Fire in My Belly: Screening and Discussion

Cultural politics collided with museum practice last week when political pressure was brought to bear on the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery to remove a four-minute video clip from the group exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.

The clip in question is by David Wojnarowicz, a gifted painter, writer, and filmmaker who died of AIDS in 1992. It contains imagery gathered by the artist for what would become his 13-minute film, A Fire In My Belly (1989). The Wexner Center, along with a number of other arts institutions across the country, is hosting an impromptu gathering to give the public the opportunity to see the artist’s work for themselves and to engage in an informal discussion of the art and the issues surrounding it with Wexner Center staff members.

We'll be screening Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly (13 mins.), the 7-minute short of related material provided by the Wojnarowicz Estate to the National Portrait Gallery, and the four minutes of edited video that was initially included in the Hide/Seek exhibition. A discussion will follow and a second screening will take place at 5:30 pm.