Andrew Suggs
Andrew Suggs is an arts and AIDS worker from Appalachian Tennessee. Their work and research focuses on contemporary art and HIV/AIDS, queer art and artists, performance, disruptive strategies, and photography. Andrew is a curator, writer, and practicing artist. They are currently pursuing at PhD in Art History at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
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The Catastrophe That Has Already Happened: Jimmy DeSana, Mail Art Networks & Queer Zines
Lecture & Conversation
July 14, 2024
KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin
Andrew Suggs gives a talk on Jimmy DeSana’s early engagement with mail art and queer zine culture anchored in the discussion of a particular image that DeSana distributed through both these channels, the c. 1973 self-portrait in which he appears to have hanged himself. Looking at other of DeSana’s photographs as rehearsals for death open up questions around the relationships among death, AIDS, and photography. Gregory Battcock’s briefly lived periodical Trylon & Perisphere, for which DeSana served as staff photographer, serves as a key point of reference.
Following this talk, Andrew was joined by Andrew Pasquier, an editor of BUTT Magazine, and other guests who discussed the contemporary state of queer zines addressing issues of audience, network building, sex and self-publishing and the impact of the internet.
The talk was one of two public programs Suggs designed and implemented in conjunction with Jimmy DeSana and Paul P.: Ruins of Rooms, curated by
Krist Gruijthuijsen with Linda Franken.
Jimmy DeSana, Untitled (self-portrait), 1975. Vintage silver gelatin print, 12 × 10.5 × 1 inches.
Andrew and Andrew discuss queer networking.