Artist Chistophe Cassidy working in the Kwan Fong Gallery

Dr Adina Nack, Director of the Center for Equality & Justice, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at California Lutheran University and Dr Michael Pearce have been organizing the World AIDS Day at the Kwan Fong Gallery this year.

Craig Webb, Director of HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention for Ventura County Public Health. very kindly lent us his AIDS memorabilia which he collected for more than twenty years all over the world
“ I started this collection more than twenty years ago when one of the people I worked with died of AIDS and then his parents gave me a pin to remember him by. It started with a pin and then it grew and grew from there. “ Pins from Africa, commemorative stamps, AIDS awareness material ranging from a faceless doll, which represents the universality of AIDS to the first Time magazine cover with the word AIDS on it.
It all summarizes more than 25 years of living in a world with HIV/AIDS and wanting to have an active part in the fight against this terrible disease.

These pins are part of a collection of AIDS memorabilia lent by Mr Craig Webb.

Chistophe Casssidy, an artist from Culver City, Los Angeles has created especially for the occasion a 24 foot long mural exhibited for two weeks at the gallery. It is a statement, when you walk in the gallery, one that hopefully will talk to all of us, to help spread the word of HIV/ AIDS, and one of compassion too.
“The transitory nature of this mural relates to the existential nature of the subject… I learnt that AIDS is now a treatable, but not a curable disease and that part of the problem in places like Africa is the stigma attached to it. It is quite similar to the stigma there was here twenty years ago, when HIV/AIDS was strongly associated with a lifestyle; there was a moral judgment of people with HIV/AIDS. We now know that there is not enough protection and also not enough education about AIDS.

Christophe Cassidy in front of his mural, World AIDS Day at California Lutheran University.

“I also wanted to convey the idea of compassion, not necessarily to shock people. With the hand over the shoulder, the comfort of the pet, the person who suffers is not alone and ostracized.

“I have previously donated artwork to Paws / LA, a charity which was founded in 1989 in response to the companion animal-related crises faced by residents of Los Angeles County who were financially and physically debilitated by HIV/AIDS.”