Abstract

Much of the historical record on HIV/AIDS activism focuses on the highly documented activities of ACT UP/NY while silencing the work and achievements of other chapters and organizations also operating at the height of the crisis. Following the 1989 AIDS Conference in Montréal, a local chapter christened ACT UP Montréal was co-founded by ACT UP/NY’s Blane Charles the following year. Equally vibrant, the graphic ephemera of ACT UP Montréal—posters, protest signs, pamphlets, manifestation documentation and T-shirts—demonstrates activist voices deserving of similar in-depth analysis. What emerges through looking closely at these items is not only a distinctly québécois framework, but an entirely different set of reference points and goals for HIV/AIDS activist work when compared to ACT UP/NY (often referred to as “the Vatican” in interviews collected for this work). Furthermore, “Active Grieving: The Aesthetic Activism of ACT UP Montréal” reveals a multifaceted microhistory of localized reaction to an international pandemic. This thesis builds on the increasing literature and academic discourse on the many groups that made revolutionary change during this era, this work connects activism history, art history, oral history, archival history, and object analysis to contextualize better known HIV/AIDS activist imagery and show the foundational differences between ACT UP Montréal and other activist groups.