Oral history interview with Carrie Yamaoka
name: label: Interviewee
content: Yamaoka, Carrie, 1957-
label: Interviewer
content: Fialho, Alex, 1989-
label: Names
content: Fierce Pussy (Artists' group)
label: Names
content: Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: AIDS (Disease) and the arts
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: Yamaoka, Carrie, 1957-
label: Interviewer
content: Fialho, Alex, 1989-
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Interviewee Carrie Yamaoka (1957- ) is a painter in New York, New York. Interviewer Alex Fialho (1989- ) is the Programs Manager for Visual AIDS in New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Items (sound files (4 hrs., 20 min.), digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 83 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2016 July 26-27
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.yamaok16
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 Carrie Yamaoka conducted 2016 July 26-27, by Alex Fialho, for the Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project, at Yamaoka's home in New York, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Interview with Carrie Yamaoka, conducted by Alex Fialho for the Archives of American Art, at Yamaoka's home in New York, New York on July 26 and 27, 2016. Yamaoka speaks of her childhood on Long Island and in New York and Tokyo; formative exposure to visual art and photography; studying at Wesleyan University and the Tyler School of Art in Rome; meeting her partner Joy Episalla and beginning to develop her sense of queerness in Rome; moving to New York in 1979, Hoboken in 1982, and back to New York in 1993; the beginning of the AIDS crisis; her body of work and exhibitions as a painter, and changes in her work over the course of the AIDS crisis; her involvement in ACT UP and fierce pussy; the art world's reaction to AIDS activism; the social effect of more effective medication for HIV/AIDS; her involvement with Visual AIDS; retrospective exhibitions of fierce pussy's activist posters; the sense of community she developed through activism; dealing with the grief and trauma of the AIDS crisis over time; and the particular experience of women in the AIDS crisis. Yamaoka also recalls George Nakashima, Jacqueline Gourevitch, Michael Otterson, Jean Foos, Jonathan Shahn, Flavia Ormond, Jamie McEwan, Jesse Murry, Robert Bordo, Adam Simon, Michele Araujo, David Nelson, David Knudsvig, Bill Allen, Zoe Leonard, Nancy Brooks Brody, Suzanne Wright, Tim Bailey, David Wojnarowicz, Tom Rauffenbart, AA Bronson, Chrysanne Stathacos, Maxine Wolfe, Virginia Solomon, Steve Lam, Helen Molesworth, Martabel Wasserman, Jennifer Bartlett, Tony Feher, and others.