Jeremy Ayers Papers
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Abstract
Jeremy Ayers (1948-2016) was a visual artist, writer, musician, photographer, and member of the Athens, Georgia creative community. The Jeremy Ayers Papers (inclusive dates 1919-2018; bulk dates 1980-2016) consists of materials created and collected by Ayers documenting his personal life and artistic pursuits as a visual artist, writer, photographer, and musician. Materials documenting Ayers' photography are both personal and artistic in nature and include photographic prints, negatives, slides, and large format prints for exhibitions. The collection also includes Ayers' journals, screenplays, manuscript drafts, loose notes, and notebooks with written prose and song lyrics; personal correspondence; drawings and sketches; and ephemera. Materials in this collection are in paper, analog audiovisual, and electronic format.
Biographical Note
Jeremy Ayers (1948-2016) was an artist, writer, musician, photographer, and member of the Athens, Georgia creative community. Ayers was born in South Carolina to Dr. Robert Ayers, a scholar of world religions and founder of the University of Georgia's Religious Studies and Philosophy Departments, and Mary Frances Ayers. In 1969, Ayers received his Bachelor degrees in visual arts and English literature from the University of Georgia in Athens. After graduation, he moved to New York City to pursue an MFA at the Pratt Institute.
In the 1970s, Ayers became involved in Andy Warhol's Factory, adopting the alter ego "Sylvia Thinn." As Thinn, Ayers wrote a column called "Why Not?" in Interview magazine. He also appeared in stage productions and performance art pieces as Sylvia Thinn. In 1973, Ayers sustained a severe traumatic head injury and shortly thereafter began suffering occasional seizures, which continued throughout his life. The persistent nature of his medical condition resulted in Ayers moving back to Athens, where his family still lived, but he made frequent extended visits to New York City.
Once back in Athens, Ayers became actively involved in the local arts and music scene as a songwriter, illustrator, graphic artist, and photographer. It was during this time that he collaborated with the musical bands the B-52s, co-writing their hit song "52 Girls," as well as lyrics for several R.E.M. songs. He also utilized his talents as an illustrator and graphic artist to create designs and images for the album covers of Athens musicians. During this time, Ayers also became a founding member of the underground band Limbo District. In addition to these collaborations, Ayers continued to write his own poetry, novels, and screenplays. Ayers remained an active artist until his death in 2016.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into three series and and four subseries.
Series I: Visual Arts
Subseries I.A: Photography
Subseries I.B: Video
Subseries I.C: Audio
Subseries I.D: Artwork
Series II: Writings
Series III: Personal Materials
Within each series, materials are arranged alphabetically by subject, name, or format. Untitled journals in Series II are further arranged in chronological order.
Scope and Contents
The Jeremy Ayers Papers (inclusive dates 1919-2018; bulk dates 1980-2016) consists of materials created and collected by Ayers documenting his personal life and artistic pursuits as a visual artist, writer, photographer, and musician. Materials in this collection are in paper, analog audiovisual, and electronic format.
Series I focuses on Ayers' visual art and is composed of photographs, video, audio, and artwork. Photographic themes include candid photographs of friends, travels, and daily life; his family including his father, Robert Ayers, and partner Daniel Nelson; his time as a member of Andy Warhol's Factory; artistic projects with props and staged poses; well-known individuals including R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, B-52s singers Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson, activist MaVynee Betsch, and singer Patti Smith; nature, animals, and landscapes; and the Occupy Wall Street movement. The video projects contain footage shot by Ayers documenting the life and culture of Athens, Georgia; footage of Ayers reading his written works; artistic projects; and the short film Carnival, which was a collaboration between Limbo District and local Athens filmmaker James Herbert. The audio found in this series was either created by Ayers or was affiliated with him. The artwork found in this series was created by Ayers and consists of pen and ink drawings; sketches; photographs of the artwork; photocopies; paintings; and collages.
In addition to being a visual artist, Ayers was a writer and lyricist, and this is reflected in Series II. This series contains Ayers' original writings including screenplays, manuscript drafts, and loose handwritten notes; as well as notebooks with written prose and song lyrics. This series also contains his journals, dated from the mid-1970s through 2014, which document his daily life, his thoughts, and sometimes include creative pieces.
Series III focuses on Jeremy Ayers as an individual and contains items relating to his personal life. Materials in this series include personal correspondence between Ayers and friends; archived Facebook posts; family photographs; and personal documents like his old passports, yoga certificates, and astrological readings. Ayers collected vintage photographs, postcards, stamps, and artwork by other artists – all of these are also included in this series.
In addition to paper and analog audiovisual materials, this collection also includes digital formats comprising of digital photographs, videos, audio, and computer files.
Researchers are advised that this collection contains a small number of photographs that include nudity. These photographs are identified in the folder inventory of Subseries I.A: Photographs with a content warning.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Jeremy Ayers Papers; MSS 610; box number; folder number or item identifier; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Daniel Nelson and Sandra Holton, the Ayers Estate, in March 2022. The accession number associated with this gift is 2022.020.
Custodial History
Glenn Horowitz Booksellers had attempted to broker a sale of this collection, but were unable to, and so the estate reclaimed and donated the collection to NYU. Before arriving at NYU, materials were moved from the Horowitz offices to another storage unit.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact Fales Library and Special Collections, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596 with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Born-Digital Access Policies and Procedures
Advance notice is required for the use of computer records. Original physical digital media is restricted. Born-digital materials have not been transferred and may not be available to researchers. Researchers may request access copies. To request that material be transferred, or if you are unsure if material has been transferred, please contact Fales Library and Special Collections, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596 with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Appraisal
At the time of accessioning, the following items were appraised out of the collection: a package of morning glory seeds, two computer system start-up disks, a box of candy, a clipboard, 12 VHS and 1 Hi8 cassettes with evidence of mold damage.
During processing, the following items were appraised out of the collection: a deck of playing cards labeled "Male Nudes by Hollywood," a back pain booklet, commercially sold road maps, bank statements, two copies of Harper's Magazine, and Xerox copies of published articles and clippings. 625 RAW camera files were also deaccessioned at this time, while the jpeg files were preserved.
About this Guide
Processing Information
At the time of accessioning, materials were rehoused in archival boxes and folders, maintaining the original order of the materials. Loose materials were foldered in the order in which they appeared in a box. Born-digital carriers were identified, physically separated, and inventoried. A small amount of correspondence with water damage and evidence of mold was photocopied, with the originals discarded. 12 VHS cassettes and 1 Hi8 cassette with evidence of mold were discarded.
The collection was processed and described by an archivist in the summer of 2024. Materials were kept in their archival folders and boxes. Materials were arranged into series and subseries by topic and then organized alphabetically by file title within those series and subseries. Related materials were grouped together intellectually and physically, when possible. Photographs, negatives, and slides were removed from their original housing and placed into archival sleeves. Duplicate materials were discarded.
39 audiovisual items were assigned a media ID and housed appropriately. Some Hi8 tapes required rehousing into archival cases.
One photo album was treated for mold and rehoused by conservators. Two folders filled with song lyrics were professional flattened by conservators. One journal with a deteriorating spine was stabilized by conservators.
New York University Libraries follow professional standards and best practices when imaging, ingesting, and processing born-digital material in order to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the content. Four optical discs were forensically imaged and analyzed using Exact Audio Copy and Isobusters. A 2 TB hard drive was forensically imaged, analyzed, and arranged using Forensic Toolkit. The electronic records were intellectually incorporated into the finding aid. 625 RAW camera files, which contain duplicate photographs, were removed from the collection.
During processing, 25 of the Hi8 tapes were matched with digital surrogates not created to Preservation standards. These digital surrogates were retained as a precaution until digitization takes place.
