'Pharmacological Body: AIDS/PrEP Map' 2024, Digital print of drawing, ink on paper, 211cm x 131cm. Digital print of drawing, ink on paper, 211cm x 131cm. Lightbox with digitally scanned drawing printed on transparent film, 87.5cm x 63cm.
Pharmacological Body: AIDS/PrEP Map is a counter-map of how the history of HIV/AIDS impacts the bodies of gay men today through the PrEP pill. This drawing uses the circulatory system of a symbolic universal gay male body, based on an anatomical drawing from anatomist Andreas Vesalius to map the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Sydney and the more recent use of PrEP. Since HIV/AIDS is transmitted through the blood, the history is depicted through the veins, using red for AIDS to represent the AIDS ribbon and light blue for the Truvada PrEP pill. A lightbox version of the map, without colours, transforms it into a ghostly x-ray, conveying a sense of the haunting influence of history and trauma.
UNSW School of Art & Design stands on an important place of learning and exchange first occupied by the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples.
We acknowledge the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land that our students and staff share, create and operate on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this respect to all First Nations peoples across Australia. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
