Found Art Project

We are...coming out of the closet and proud of it.

Those who understand the feeling of having to face the fact that they are different, also understand the use of the analogy of the closet. Gay people have faced severe discrimination through the decades but have only recently begun to fiercely protest the discrimination towards them. By openly claiming their sexual orientation, gay people have stepped out of the suffocating closet and into the open world.
We decided to display the opposition towards gay people and the growing support for their rights through 1970-1990. This gives viewers an idea of what the situation was like in that time period. To show opposition of gay rights, there was no other better representation than Anita Bryant, a prominent figure in the 70s-80s in the Save Our Children movement. We obtained pictures of her advocating her anti-gay organization that she founded. We also used several popular quotes that expresses her viewpoint of gay people. To represent hatred, we used a black box for the anti-gay section.
For the important gay supporters, we used pictures, records and posters of Harvey Milk who was a gay political figure in San Francisco and Elton John who admitted he was bisexual in a 1976 interview. These pictures really capture the personality of these two figures. To show the fervor of those times, we used pictures of protests by the Gay Liberation Front and a picture of the Gay Liberation Day March in 1970. To show the importance and role of the media in influencing viewpoints, we had a cover of the movie Longtime Companion (1990) which deals with a gay couple and AIDS. Since the topic of AIDS meshes with the issue of gays, we had four different squares from the AIDS quilt (1987) in Washington DC. All of these squares represent in their own way, the feelings of families and friends of gay and AIDS people. Finally, we had a logo and mission statement from the Human Rights Campaign (formed 1980), showing the support and help that the gay rights movement receives. We obtained these items from our teachers, neighbors, old library exhibits and thrift stores.

The only thing I would do differently is plan ahead and time management so that we could obtain all the items we were hoping to have. Also I would try harder to find more sources to get items from the allotted time period. While assembling, we should have brought more supplies such as tape so that we wouldn't waste time looking for it.

For next year's class, I recommend that you find a topic that really intrigues you so that you will be excited to do this project. Also you could do a topic you do not know much about, as in my case, and end up learning a lot so that you have something worthwhile to take back from this project. As usual time management is key and look hard for found art items. Hopefully, you will learn tons of information about the era just by viewing the found art.