Series I: Art Production

Medium: c-print, wood frame

Dimensions: 6.25" x 24"

Medium: billboard poster

Dimensions: 45" x 60"

Description: Billboard designed for Ann Philbin's 1990 Art Against AIDS campaign in Chicago; installed at bus shelters and train platforms city-wide.

Medium: c-print, mixed media

Dimensions: 40" x 30" (print)

Description: Photograph depicts artist in drag, looking at an image of President George Bush Sr. The suitcase is monogrammed "G.H.W.B." and contains a scarf, men's dress shirt and tie, stained men's underwear, socks, a pillow, and KY Jelly. The artwork consists of two pieces, the c-print and the suitcase. The suitcase owned by the Fales Library is not original, it was recreated for the Robert Blanchon catalog published by Visual AIDS.

Medium: c-prints

Dimensions: 10" x 10"

Description: Piece consists of 10 separate prints.

Medium: offset print, wood frame

Dimensions: 21" x 17.25"

Description: Framed advertisement. Blanchon led a tour, called "Cruising New York", of popular meeting places for anonymous gay sex in New York City. Offset print created as advertisement for tour. Print also published in Promotional Copy, an artist publication edited by Robin Kahn.

Medium: 2 sets of c-prints

Dimensions: 30" x 20" each

Description: Photographs of two identical cypress treetops. One is shot through a window screen.

Medium: hand-tinted cibachrome prints, hand-painted wood frames

Dimensions: 10.75" x 15" each

Description: Seven empty Los Angeles carports. Piece consists of seven framed prints.

Medium: c-print, wood frame

Dimensions: 20.5" x 34"

Description: Photograph of the curtains at the Farnsworth House designed by Mies van der Rohe. The curtains were installed following a dispute between the owner and the architect.

Medium: mixed media

Dimensions: variable

Description: Photographs represent gifts received by the character Harold in the play The Boys in the Band (1968) by Matt Crowley. Text panels feature related excerpts from play's script. In the original installation a shelf held a sympathy card. Piece consists of six mounted pages of the script on foam board and four framed images.

Medium: c-prints, Plexiglas boxes

Dimensions: 3" x 2" x 2" each; overall dimensions variable

Description: Described by Blanchon as 990 Plexiglas boxes filled with "every photo I ever took." 874 Plexiglas boxes present spread across boxes 29-37.

Each box of contains ~100 Plexiglas boxes.

Medium: ink, paper; ed.unknown, invitation

Dimensions: 5.5" x 4.5"; schedule: 11" x 8.5"

Description: Invitation and schedule to fictional conference. Text reads: "You have been cordially invited to attend Male Call, a series of programs for male artists, curators, historians, critics, collectors, and arts administrators -- examining the changing roles of men in society and culture." The archive contains 9 original invitations and one copy of the original schedule.

Medium: graphite on paper

Dimensions: 36" wide, approx. 60'long

Description: Original graphite rubbings from uninscribed, commerical gravestones. Used to produce the artwork entitled Untitled (stones) .

Medium: glossy magazine prints

Dimensions: variable

Description: Honcho magazine issue 18, no. 10 (October 1995): 5-13. Portraits of Blanchon by John Philips of Hound Dog Productions, photographed for a nine-page spread in Honcho magazine.

Medium: gelatin silver prints; ed. possibly three

Dimensions: 10" x 10" each

Description: Piece consists of ten prints on foam board.

Medium: toned prints, wood frames; ed. possibly three

Dimensions: 12" x 9" each

Description: Piece consists of 10 framed prints.

Medium: c-prints, redwood frames

Dimensions: variable

Description: Five images of nude boys, photographed from 1950s gay pulp erotica. The original presentation consisted of five framed prints. Only two prints are present in the collection at the Fales Library. Among the three prints not present in the collection, one is known to have been destroyed by water damage.

Medium: paper sticker

Dimensions: 9.5" x 7.5"

Description: Image of former Chicago mayor Richard Daley with the caption "I will not get AIDS." Created as a variation on a series of posters produced by the Chicago Department of Health, Blanchon printed the design on adhesive sheets and, with John Darmour, hung it around the city. The posters' appearance was widely reported in the Chicago press. Collection consists of 68 original stickers.

Medium: cibachrome print, wood frame

Dimensions: 13.25" x 10.75"

Description: Text read: "We shall always remember with deep gratitude your comforting expression of sympahty."

Medium: black and white photograph, wood frame

Dimensions: 31" x 41"

Description: Text read: "The family of________acknowledges with grateful appreciation your kind expression of sympathy."

Medium: sepia prints on vellum

Dimensions: variable

Description: Sepia prints of advertisements from vintage gay magazines. Originally described as including 100 prints. Prints owned by the Fales Library were recreated for the Visual AIDS catalog by Tania Duvergne.

Medium: metal, rubber

Dimensions: 4.5" diameter, 1.75" deep

Description: Stainless steel garbage disposal ring inscribed with the manufacturer's name, "WASTE KING."

Medium: diazotype prints on paper

Dimensions: 36" wide, length variable

Description: Diazotype "blueprints" of rubbings from uninscribed, commercial gravestones. Prints were intended to fade over time with exposure to light. Piece consists of three rolls of diazotype prints. Each roll is stored separately.

Medium: cibachrome prints, wood frames

Dimensions: 35.5" x 45.5"

Description: A self-portrait paired with a landscape photo taken through a car windshield. Piece consists of 2 framed cibachrome prints, stored separately.

Medium: c-print, wood frame

Dimensions: 32.25" x 22.5"

Description: Originally part of a series of four photographs of gum stained sidewalks. Alternate title: Untitled (9000 Sunset Blvd.), refers to a West Hollywood cruising location where photograph was taken.

Medium: clothing labels, thread

Dimensions: men's medium

Description: Shirt sewn entirely of clothing labels.

Medium: gelatin silver print

Dimensions: 16.74" x 23.25"

Description: Full title: Untitled (No corpse of any person [except those who shall die of the plague] shall be buried in any shirt, shift, sheet, or shroud, or anything whatsoever made or mingled with flax, hemp, silk, hair, gold, or silver, or any material or thing, other than what is made of sheep's wool. Act of 1648, repealed in 1814)

Medium: sepia-toned prints, frames

Dimensions: 21" x 14.5"

Description: Two photos of two different century plants in bloom. The century plant is said to blossom once every hundred years. The piece consists of two framed prints.

Medium: polyurethane, steel

Dimensions: 32" x 33" x 24"

Medium: polyurethane, steel

Dimensions: 31" x 25" x 24"

Medium: prescription eyeglass, custom frame, glass shelf

Dimensions: shelf: 2" x 9" x 10"

Description: Installed at eye level. The eyeglass prescription matched Blanchon's own failing eyesight and eventual blindness in one eye, caused by symptoms related to HIV.

Medium: c-prints, ed. three

Dimensions: 10" x 10"

Description: From an attempt to photograph two identical waves. Piece consists of 10 separate prints.

Medium: newsprint pages bound

Dimensions: 8.5" x 11"

Description: Promotional Copy (1993) is an artist publication with entries from many different contributors. Robert Blanchon's advertisement for Cruising New York appears in a 1993 issue of Promotional Copy on page 94.

Medium: three gelatin silver prints

Dimensions: 42.5" x 32.5"

Description: Photographs taken from original performance with Mary Ellen Carroll at Wigstock, 1994. Photograph also produced as a postcard multiple, edition unknown.

Medium: wood and rubber stamp

Dimensions:

Description: Bed-in for Peace With-in was conceived for an exhibition for Popular Mechanics Gallery in the Premiere Hollywood Hotel. With collaborator Kelly Marie Martin, Blanchon decorated the room in white and lay in a bed covered with self-help books. Fales holds the stamp produced in connection with the performance. Stamp transfers the following message: Bed-in for Peace With-in, Robert Blanchon + Kelly Marie Martin:

drove from Paris to Amsterdam Hilton talking in our bed for a week... the newspaper said what're doing in bed... I said we're only trying to get some Peace - John Lennon 3.24.69

drove from Koreatown to Hollywood Premiere talking in bed for a little time no one asked what're doing in bed...said we're only tring to get some Piece of Mind - Robert Blanchon + Kelly Marie Martin 8.11.97

Medium: photograph

Dimensions: 4" x 6"

Description: Piece consists of a photo from the original performance entitled Smackwater, conceptualized by Robert Blanchon and performed by Mary Ellen Carroll. During the performance lyrics to Carole King's "Smack Water Jack", written in what Blanchon claimed was crystal meth affixed to vellum and mounted to a gallery wall, were scraped off by Mary Ellen Carroll with a razor blade. She then deposited the powder in a drug baggy and cut out the place where the text had been. Folder 16 in Box 4 contains a photocopy of the original photograph of the event.

Medium: cibachrome print

Dimensions: 20" x 24"

Description: Print was labeled "test print".

Medium: c-print

Dimensions: 20" x 24"

Description: Print was labeled "test print".

Medium: c-print

Dimensions: 19.75" x 23.75"

Description: Print was labeled "test print".

Medium: c-print

Dimensions: 20" x 24"

Description: Print was labeled "test print".

Medium: c-print

Dimensions: 20" x 23.75"

Description: Print was labeled "test print".

Medium: gelatin silver print

Dimensions: 30" x 40"

Description: Print was labeled "test print".

Medium: cibachrome print

Dimensions: 20" x 30"

Description: Print was labeled "test print".

Medium: black and white photograph

Dimensions: 23" x 30"

Description: Print was labeled "test print".

Medium: c-print

Dimensions: 20" x 24"

Description: Print was labeled "test print".

Written on original container: "Robert's apartment in Silverlake" and "Honda parked in front of apartment bldg."

Blank notebook with fake book cover. Blanchon made notes on the first couple of pages.