Interview: Trevor Paglen
Trevor Paglen on Unquestioning Love
The artist describes his own experience of the AIDS crisis and the work he has contributed to the New York City AIDS Memorial sale at Christie’s
For Trevor Paglen, abuse of power comes as no surprise. His work explores state control, and how politics maps onto our environment. The artist received his Ph.D. from Berkeley’s Department of Geography, just a 20-minute drive from San Francisco General Hospital, where the USA’s first AIDS ward was established, and he went on to live in lower Manhattan, close to the site of St. Vincent's, home to the first AIDS facility on the East Coast.
While his work tends to focus on the way technology facilitates a misuse of power, Paglen (who is now in his forties) can recall the fear, hatred, and recrimination that surrounded the AIDS crisis of the late 20th century, and so was more than willing to contribute a work to Unquestioning Love, a high-profile sale featuring a truly incredible selection of contemporary art, at Christie’s in November 2021 to benefit the New York City AIDS Memorial.
Ahead of the sale, which takes place on 9 and 12 November, at Christie’s in New York, Paglen shares his thoughts on the work he has contributed, and sympathies for the cause it benefits.
Q: Could you tell us a little bit about the artwork you donated to Unquestioning Love?
Trevor Paglen: This image is of a discarded rocket body from a classified Russian satellite that was launched on May 7, 1968. The rocket body in this image lifted a satellite called Cosmos 220 into orbit. The satellite was used to assist in the navigation of Soviet nuclear submarines and direct nuclear missiles launched from them. For all of human history, people have looked towards the night sky in an attempt to understand the past and to divine the future. My images of the night sky are inspired by these long histories of looking at the sky, and the different interpretations of celestial phenomena throughout the ages.
I'm trying to put new technologies into tension with longer histories of mechanized vision and ask what sorts of things are lost when we use machines to make and analyze images.
Q: Do you have an experience or memory associated with the AIDS epidemic that affected you personally?
Paglen: The AIDS epidemic affected every person in the art world, as an entire generation was lost not only to the disease but to a government that steadfastly refused to help. The artists that mentored me were all of that generation and instilled in me the sense that being an artist came with huge responsibilities to try and affect positive change.
Q: What motivates you personally to donate your art to a charitable endeavor such as this?
Paglen: I think that all people and especially artists should recognize and play a part in memorializing the AIDS crisis, which has affected our community so much.
Q: Have you ever visited the New York City AIDS memorial? If so, what effect did it have on you?
Paglen: When I lived on 14th Street, the memorial was an everyday part of my life. The piece, and especially Jenny Holzer's intervention, is extremely powerful.
Q: The memorial features a plaza engraved with sections from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself - chosen by Jenny Holzer. Is there a poem, song, or work of art that brings to mind the crisis for you personally?
Paglen: There are simply too many to name, but Derek Jarman's "Blue" is a piece that I've gone back to over and over in my life.