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WILLIAMSPORT-SUN GAZETTE, October 21, 1991
Letters from Sun-Gazette Readers
From the Artist
Editor, Sun-Gazette,
This letter is in response to the controversy over my work currently
on exhibit at Lycoming College.
I know that my work is difficult to deal with. As an artist I find it
necessary to make images that reflect what I see in our culture. The intent
of my photographs of nude men is not "just to get their clothes off."
I use the nude as an attempt to define and redefine sexual codes (orientation,
if you will). Engaging in a discourse with these topics challenges our
cultural ethics. I feel this show has been successful because it has inspired
a dialogue. However, concerning the letters I have seen published, the
viewers' criticism may not be too different from their grandfathers.
If anyone has ever had the HIV test, wondering if they had a 50 percent
chance of the result, informing them they may not be on this planet a few
years from now, they may feel tension and up in the air (as depicted in
the photographs). Think about it. Seventy-nine Americans died in the Desert
Storm chaos this year. Our government spent more money each day in the
Middle East on the Gulf War effort than they spent in 10 years on AIDS research!
More people have died from AIDS-related illness than the total amount of
fatalities in the Vietnam War!
These people who spoke their opinion about the art in the Lycoming College
gallery are the same type that held up the research funding that was important
in the early years for education and defense against AIDS. I feel not for
the people who have died as much as for the people yet born that could be
easily be brought into the world sick from the virus.
Now let's talk about morality.
Joe Ziolkowski, Artist
New York City, NY
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