A collaborative project by members of the Laboratory for Synthetic and Electronic Poetry (LabSynthE) will become a part of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, the most significant ongoing community folk art project worldwide, highlighting the unique lives and stories of those lost to HIV/AIDS.
The 12-foot by 12-foot quilt block “An Imagined Memorial for Unrecorded People” memorializes the unnamed and unrecorded people who died of HIV/AIDS, encompassing the work of more than 40 artists from different countries.
For the last 18 months, LabSynthE displayed the quilt on the northwest wall of the ATC Lobby, inviting people to contemplate absence, said Leticia Ferreira de Souza, visiting assistant professor at The Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, & Technology at UT Dallas and the project’s creative director.
“We planned, sewed, and quilted the block as a memorialization for those who are not remembered by the archive, who are unrecorded,” she said.
During the project’s early stages, Ferreira de Souza researched through the archive of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. She focused on finding information about people who were celebrated through the quilt or had made panels for it, who were not part of the mainstream narrative on HIV/AIDS, particularly trans people who were and are at the forefront of LGBTQIA+ movements.
After finding out that the information she was seeking didn’t exist, she decided to focus the project on honoring the people who were absent and who were not given space in the central narratives of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
“The quilt block is not a statement and is not an answer, but a materialization of a process which led me to one of my current questions,” Ferreira de Souza said. “How do we remember who was not recorded, who we never met, who does not appear in the archive?”
Ferreira de Souza launched the project in 2019 with the help of master quilter Alyssa Yates and LabSynthE members. The artists displayed the quilt for the first time as part of lab director xtine burrough’s solo exhibition Ceremonial Techne exhibition at New York University’s Bobst Atrium Gallery in 2021.
During this first display, the project invited visitors to record a voice message reflecting on absence. The artists later attached the recording devices to the quilt’s center, allowing other visitors to play them back.
On Dec. 1, the lab members gathered to take down the quilt, performing the traditional Lotus fold, which they’ll ship to the National AIDS Memorial in San Francisco.
“It has always been the intention to send it to be a part of the AIDS Memorial Quilt,” Ferreira de Souza said. “We thought that doing a dedication ceremony during International AIDS Day would be special. We also thought that doing this dedication at such a complicated time, especially with SB 17 being approved and implemented on campus, would be an important contribution to the conversations about this moment.”
Considered the largest community arts project in history, the AIDS Memorial Quilt features approximately 50,000 panels created by individuals and groups to honor, remember, and celebrate the stories and lives of those lost to HIV/AIDS. The Quilt currently has dedications to more than 110,000 individuals in an epic 54-ton tapestry.
LabSynthE, a creative laboratory of Bass School graduate students and faculty led by Professor xtine burrough, focuses on developing works of art that synthesize electronic and poetic exchanges using emerging media. LabSynthE creates intimate experiences for public participation that translate technological interactions through poetic gestures for centers and events on campus, and exhibitions and symposium worldwide.