What is AIDS, now? Or is it which AIDS? What is the now of AIDS and art? Or is it the why of art & AIDS? Which AIDS. Why art. Now. Ask it again. It won’t hold still.

Artist and AIDS activist Julie Tolentino and artist and trans theorist Eva Hayward ask these questions — through art, through writing, through an open conversation about the unquestionable. Opening with artworks and readings from both Tolentino and Hayward, they tangle with the invitation to share image and language side by side. Hate (erotic) and void (deselection) are some of their keywords. To further decipher these terms, the artists reflect on their own responses to invitations surrounding AIDS and aesthetics, including terms such as ruination and archive.

Hosted by ICA LA and as a conclusion to the inaugural year of the Artist-in-Residence (AIR) Program, this evening will be introduced and engaged by UCLA English professor and Performance Studies scholar, Summer Kim Lee.