"The Questions, or Who are we, where do come from, and to what kind of fuckery must we subject ourselves to in order to receive the the truth?" (2025) | 160cm x 278cm | Graphite on HIV medication packaging
"The Answer, or I am ready to receive the fuckery of truth" (2025) | 80cm x 107cm | Graphite on HIV medication packaging
"The Questions" installed at the “Incurable Alliance: Asia-Pacific HIV+ Art Showcase” at Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab Art Space IV, Taipei, in May 2025
"The Questions" installed at the “Incurable Alliance: Asia-Pacific HIV+ Art Showcase” at Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab Art Space IV, Taipei, in May 2025
Jerome at the entrance of “Incurable Alliance: Asia-Pacific HIV+ Art Showcase” at Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab Art Space IV, Taipei, in May 2025
Flyer for “Incurable Alliance: Asia-Pacific HIV+ Art Showcase” at Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab Art Space IV, Taipei, in May 2025
Original sketch for "The Questions" (2024) | Graphite on paper
T H E Q U E S T I O N S & T H E A N S W E R
The Questions and The Answer were a pair of paintings I made especially for the Incurable Alliance: Asia-Pacific HIV+ Art Showcase at Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab Art Space IV, Taipei, in May 2025.
Organised by HIVStory and curated by Kairon Liu and Poyao Huang, the show featured new works by nine HIV+ artists from the Asia-Pacific region that explored their personal take on life with the virus.
I painted these two works in response to a prompt from Kairon who asked me how I felt about living with the virus. It’s not a easy question to answer because it’s conflated with a lot of uneasy questions about guilt, shame, inconvenience, fear and assorted anxieties.
Most days I just take my meds and pretend it’s not there but of course it’s always there, like a rogue software running in the background.
Making artwork on the medication packaging allows me to confront some of these questions. And the only response that I can give with any honesty is to live through it. The virus is part of me now.