Kissing Doesn't Kill. Greed and Indifference Do.

Item

Title: Kissing Doesn't Kill. Greed and Indifference Do.
Description: Landscape format poster printed in colours. The head and shoulders of three couples: a man and a woman; a man and a man; and a woman and a woman, of various races, kissing. Captioned above, in blue with title, and below in white lettering on a blue strip- reading: Corporate Greed, Government Inaction And Public Indifference Make AIDS A Political Crisis.

Gran Fury, a collective of artists and designers dedicated to promoting AIDS/HIV awareness, produced many inventive and thought-provoking posters. AIDS activists had used the strategy of the 'Kiss-In' - large public demonstrations of affection by gay and straight people - to undermine complacency and conservative commentators alike. This 1989 advertisement, designed for display on public transport in New York City and San Francisco, ridicules small-mindedness as well as reminding the authorities of their responsibilities in combating AIDS.
Creator: Gran Fury (Artists' collective); Gran Fury
Date Created: 1989
Subject: AIDS (Disease) and art; Public health; LGBTQ+; Women; Men; Homosexuality; Homosexuality in art; political art
Format: Posters; political posters; Advertising, Political; offset lithography
observed dimension: Sheet height: 293mm
Sheet width: 941mm
Identifier: 2023.BC03.05
Coverage: New York; United States
Publisher: ACT UP; Victoria and Albert Museum
Provenance: Given by Shaun Cole. Reproduced courtesy of Gran Fury/Avram Finkelstein
Rights: © Victoria and Albert Museum
Relation: Silence=Death; Ignorance = Fear / Silence = Death; Untitled (for ACT UP); Enjoy ATZ; Naughty Bunny; What's Wrong with this Picture?; Brown’s Iron Bitters; Ex Libris of Forro Oszkarek; Seated Female Figurine; Photograph of Denise Oliver; Seven Ages of Woman; Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk; Judging a Horse; Photograph of Denise Oliver, Young Lords Party; ACT UP 36th Anniversary