Oral history interview with Lyle Ashton Harris
name: label: Interviewee
content: Harris, Lyle Ashton, 1965-
label: Interviewer
content: Fialho, Alex, 1989-
label: Names
content: American Academy in Rome -- Students
label: Names
content: California Institute of the Arts -- Students
label: Names
content: Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.) -- Students
label: Names
content: Whitney Museum of American Art
label: Names
content: Baker, Houston A., Jr., 1943-
label: Names
content: Barton, Nancy, (Artist)
label: Names
content: Basquiat, Jean-Michel, 1960-1988
label: Names
content: Butler, Cornelia H.
label: Names
content: Carby, Hazel V.
label: Names
content: Collier, Jim
label: Names
content: Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.
label: Names
content: Geer, Tommy
label: Names
content: Goldin, Nan, 1953-
label: Names
content: Gonzalez-Torres, Felix, 1957-1996
label: Names
content: Gray, Todd, 1954-
label: Names
content: Grayson, John, 1943-
label: Names
content: Hemphill, Essex
label: Names
content: Julien, Isaac
label: Names
content: Lord, Catherine, 1949-
label: Names
content: Mapplethorpe, Robert (Robert Michael)
label: Names
content: Mays, Vickie M.
label: Names
content: O'Dench, Ellen
label: Names
content: O'Meally, Jackie
label: Names
content: O'Meally, Robert G., 1948-
label: Names
content: Riggs, Marlon T.
label: Names
content: Seeley, J.
label: Names
content: Sekula, Allan
label: Names
content: Tate, Greg
label: Names
content: Tilton, Jack
label: Names
content: Watson, Simon
label: Names
content: Wilson, Millie
label: Names
content: Woodman, Francesca, 1958-1981
place: label: Place
content: England -- London -- Description and Travel
label: Place
content: Ghana -- Description and Travel
label: Place
content: Netherlands -- Amsterdam -- Description and Travel
label: Place
content: New York (N.Y.) -- Description and Travel
label: Place
content: Tanzania -- Description and Travel
topic: label: Occupation
content: Performance artists -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Photographers -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Video artists -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: AIDS activists
label: Topic
content: AIDS (Disease) and the arts
label: Topic
content: Racism
label: Topic
content: African American artists
label: Topic
content: Artists (LGBTQ)
label: Topic
content: Gay artists
label: Topic
content: African American art -- African influences
label: Topic
content: African American educators
label: Topic
content: African American photographers
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Harris, Lyle Ashton, 1965-
label: Interviewer
content: Fialho, Alex, 1989-
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Lyle Ashton Harris (1965- ) is an artist who works in video, photography, and performance in New York, New York. Alex Fialho (1989- ) is a curator and arts writer and works as Programs Director for Visual AIDS in New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 6 Items (Sound recording: 6 sound files (8 hr., 6 min.), digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 95 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2017 March 27-29
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.harris17
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Lyle Ashton Harris, conducted 2017 March 27 and 29, by Alex Fialho, for the Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project, at Harris's studio and home in New York, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Harris speaks of his childhood in the Bronx; his family's influence on his race-consciousness; living in Tanzania for two years as a child and the effects on his understanding of race and sexuality; his grandfather's extensive photographic archive; contact with the South African diaspora through his step-father; attending Wesleyan University; formative experiences in London, Amsterdam, and New York in the mid-1980s; his education and development as a photographer; attending CalArts and encountering West Coast AIDS activism; encountering systemic racism in Los Angeles; close friendships with Marlon Riggs and Essex Hemphill; exhibitions of his work in New York in the early 1990s; the production of his Ektachrome Archive and his impulse to photograph daily life; his work on the Black Community AIDS Research and Education (Black C.A.R.E.) project in Los Angeles; participating in the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program; being diagnosed with HIV and remaining asymptomatic; attending the Dia Black Popular Culture Conference in 1992; photographing and mounting "The Good Life" in 1994 and "The Watering Hole" in 1996; issues of blackness and queerness in his photographic work; his residency at the American Academy in Rome in 2000; moving to Accra, Ghana for seven years in 2005; his pedagogy as an art professor; his thoughts on the lack of voices of color in the Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic Oral History Project and in the larger power structures of the art world; and his hope that his artistic legacy will be evaluated in its proper context. Harris also recalls Jackie and Robert O'Meally, Jay Seeley, Ellen O'Dench, Francesca Woodman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jim Collier, Robert Mapplethorpe, Allan Sekula, Hazel Carby, Isaac Julien, Catherine Lord, Millie Wilson, Todd Gray, John Grayson, Tommy Gear, Marlon Riggs, Essex Hemphill, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Nancy Barton, Vickie Mays, Connie Butler, Greg Tate, Henry Louis Gates, Houston Baker, Nan Goldin, Jack Tilton, Simon Watson, and others.