Hunter Reynolds Papers and Collection
Call Number
Dates
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
The Hunter Reynolds Papers and Collection comprise consists of source material, photographs, videotapes, sketches, press, and correspondence created and received by visual and performance artist and AIDS activist Hunter Reynolds. The processed portion of the collection is material related to Reynolds' Memorial Dress Project, which commemorates individual victims of the AIDS pandemic.
Biographical Note
Hunter Reynolds is a visual and performance artist and AIDS activist. An early member of ACT UP, in 1989 Reynolds co-founded Art Positive, an affinity group of ACT-UP to fight homophobia and censorship in the arts. Reynolds' performance, photography, and installations address his experience as an HIV-positive gay man living in the age of AIDS; the work speaks to issues of gender identity, political, social, and sexual histories, mourning and loss, survival, hope and healing. Among his projects are Patina du Prey's Memorial Dress, The Drag Pose Series, Blood Spot Series and Mummification Series. He has collaborated on major performance projects including The Banquet with Chrysanne Stathacos and I-Dea The Goddess with Maxine Heneryson.
Source: Visual AIDS (https://www.visualaids.org/artists/detail/hunter-reynolds)
Arrangement
The Hunter Reynolds Papers and Collection are subdivided into series organized by project and media-type.
The Memorial Dress and Book project (Series I, Subseries A and B) collects the material related to Reynolds' Memorial Dress project; it is arranged in alphabetical order between 4 boxes of printed material, 3 objects, and 1 oversized container. Series II includes the test fabrics for the Memorial Dress and the Memorial Dress. Oversize Series I includes two poster tubes containing the Memorial Dress plastic name templates.
Scope and Content
The Hunter Reynolds Papers and Collection consists of source material, photographs, videotapes, sketches, artworks, press, and correspondence created and received by artist and AIDS activist Hunter Reynolds. The processed portion of the collection is material related to Reynolds' Memorial Dress Project, which commemorates individual victims of the AIDS pandemic.
Subjects
Conditions Governing Access
Series I and associated objects in Series II are open to researchers. The rest of the collection is unprocessed. Appointments are necessary for the use of manuscript and archival collections.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); Hunter Reynolds Papers and Collection; MSS 319; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.
Provenance
The collection was acquired by NYU's Fales Library & Special Collections from Hunter Reynolds in June 2011.
Appraisal
In May 2019, 29 boxes of unprocessed material, containing mostly clothing, were returned to Hunter Reynolds.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The bulk of this collection remains unprocessed and is not represented in this finding aid.
In May 2022, contract archivists working to stabilize the collection to move offsite cleaned materials in boxes 36 and 41, part of "My 911." During cleaning, a flashlight with corroded batteries was identified and discarded through hazardous waste disposal.
Revisions to this Guide
Repository
Series I: Memorial Dress
Scope and Content
Series I documents Hunter Reynolds' Memorial Dress project, spanning the years 1992-2010. The series includes material related to the construction and exhibition of his Memorial Dress -- a black ball gown silk-screened with the names of 25,000 people who died of AIDS. Exhibitions of the dress were modeled by Reynolds in character as his alter ego, Patina du Prey. The Memorial Dress was premiered in 1992 at the ICA of Boston, was presented during the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, and produced in collaboration with The Contemporary Art Institute of New York. The material documents the conception and exhibition of the Memorial Dress in the U.S. and internationally, and includes press, production material, exhibition files, and the dress itself.
Arrangement
The Series is divided into two subseries, documenting the production phase and the exhibition phase of the dress and its accompanying materials. Folders are arranged alphabetically.
Subseries A: Memorial Dress and Book production
Art in America - Memorial Dress Picture, 2006
Artists Space Memorial Book and Transcriptions, 1993-2007, inclusive
Comment Book (Photocopies) Berlin, Germany NGBK, 1993
Memorial Books Bound [1 of 3], undated
Memorial Books Bound [2 of 3], undated
Memorial Books Bound [3 of 3], undated
Memorial Book Loose Pages, undated
Memorial Book - Name Transcriptions [1 of 2], undated
Memorial Book - Name Transcriptions [2 of 2], undated
Memorial Book - Names Transcribed, undated
Memorial Book - Original Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Gardens, 1997
Memorial Book - Original Buch 1 - Kassel, 1997; Parsons 2001, 1997; 2001
Memorial Book - Original Buch 2 - Boston 1996; Berlin 1997; Parschs 2001, 1996; 1997; 2001
Memorial Book - Original Buch 3 - Parsons Dec.1, 2001, 2001
Memorial Book - Original Buch 4 - Parons, Dec. 1, 2001, 2001
Memorial Book - Original Buch 5 - Judson 2010; DWA 2000; Parsons 2001, 2010; 2000; 2001
Memorial Book Pages, undated
Memorial Book Photocopies, undated
Memorial Book Production, undated
Ray Navarro - Inspiration From Death Bed, undated
Memorial Book Plaque, undated
Memorial Book Spiral Bound, undated
Memorial Book - Transcriptions Buch 5 & Sheets, 2000-2001, inclusive
Memorial Dress - Adding of the Names, 1996
Memorial Dress - Book Drafts, 1996
Memorial Dress - Exhibition/Performance Plaques, 1996
Memorial Dress - Fundraising Letters, 1996
Memorial Dress - Misc., 1996
Memorial Dress - Names Lists [1 of 2], undated
Memorial Dress - Names Lists [2 of 2], undated
Memorial Dress - Press, 1996
Memorial Dress - Programs and Cards - German, undated
Memorial Dress - Promotional Cards, undated
Memorial Quilt Book - Names, undated
Patina Du Prey's Memorial Dress Comment Book - Dress Codes (Unbound), 1993
Patina Du Prey's Memorial Dress - Press, 1993-2007, inclusive
Subseries B: Memorial Dress and Book Exhibitions
[AIDS Projekte - German Brochure], 1993
Artists Space, March 2007
Artists Space, 2007
Artists Space - Left Wall, Timeline, Memorial Book Pages, undated
Artists Space - Right Wall - Name LIst, Photos [1 of 2], undated
Artists Space - Right Wall - Name List, Photos [2 of 2], undated
Artists Space - Statements & Press Releases, 2007
Artists Space - Translations from German to English, 2007
Campion, Edmund - "Music to Turn On", 1993; 2006; 2007, inclusive
Correspondence - Gupta, Sunil, 1993-1994, inclusive
Correspondence - Henryson, Maxine, 1995-1996, inclusive
Creative Time - Simon Watson, 1994
"Dead from AIDS" Correspondence, 1987-1991; 2004, inclusive
Di Raimondo, Gia [Ask Hunter?], 1980-1986 [?], inclusive
Documenta Kassel, 1997
Getting to Know You - Reading of the Names, 1992
Hagen, undated, inclusive
Hamburg, Leuchtfeur, June 9, 1995
ICA Boston, 1993
Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum - Hagen - Thema AIDS, 1993
The Life Ball, Vienna, Austria, May 6, 1995
[loose papers, Memorial Book?], undated, inclusive
Love AIDS Riot Sex - Catalog - NGBK, undated
Love AIDS Riot Sex - Programs etc., undated
Mary Goldman Gallery - "The Moon Over Gerhard", 2004
Memorial Dress to File, undated, inclusive
Memorial Dress Performance - Berlin, 1997
Mensch, William, 1989-1994, inclusive
Neher, Krista, 1994
Survival AIDS/David Wojnarowicz Rimbaud Series - Catalog PPOW, 2012
Traveling Exhibition, 2008
Trinitatiskirche - Koln - Catalogs, undated, inclusive
Trinitatiskirche Koln - Exhibit, 1994
Trinitatiskirche Koln - Exhibition Book, 1994
Trinitatiskirche Koln - Photos Copies, undated, inclusive
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 1997
Subseries C: Memorial Dress Sound and Video Recordings
Hunter Reynolds - Patina du Prey's Memorial Dress - ICA/ Boston, 1993
Language of Materials
Existence and Location of Copies
Access DVD available.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Original format: 3/4" Umatic
Duration: 4 minutes
Patina du Prey's Memorial Dress - Master 1 "Dump tape", 1993
Language of Materials
Existence and Location of Copies
Access DVD available.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Original format: 3/4" Umatic
Duration: 20 minutes.
Patina du Prey's Memorial Dress - Master 2 "Dump tape", 1993
Language of Materials
Existence and Location of Copies
Access DVD available.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Original format: 3/4" Umatic
Duration: 20 minutes.
Patina du Prey's Memorial Dress - Compilation Master, 1990-1993, inclusive
Language of Materials
Scope and Content
1. 2. The Banquet. Duration: 3 minutes 40 seconds 3. The Memorial Dress. Duration: 4 minutes
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Original format: 3/4" Umatic
Duration: Unknown
Patina du Prey's Memorial Dress - Kunst-Werke, Berlin, 1995
General
Per tape annotaion: Copy von SVHS. Copyright: Karen Fischer
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Original format: VHS
Duration: 15 minutes
Patina du Prey's Memorial Dress - possibly Kunst-Werke, Berlin
General
Per tape annotaion: Copy von SVHS. Copyright: Karen Fischer
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Original format: VHS
Duration: 13 minutes
Hunter Reynolds - Patina du Prey's Memorial Dress - Performance, circa 1993
Existence and Location of Copies
Access DVD available.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Original format: HI-8
Duration: 6 minutes.
Unidentified, Circa 1990s
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Original format: Video 8mm
Duration: Unknown
Life Ball, 1995
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Original format: VHS
Standard: May be PAL
Duration: Unknown
Reading of NAMES - Getting to Know You
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Original format: 1/4" audiocassette
