On display since October 30th, the National Portrait Gallery’s “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” exhibition ran into controversy on Monday when CNSNews.com, a conservative news service, wrote a review of the show entitled, “Smithsonian Christmas-Season Exhibit Features Ant-Covered Jesus, Naked Brothers Kissing, Genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres Grabbing Her Breasts.”  Then after the Drudge Report picked up the story, Republicans in Congress and religious groups turned up the heat.  In response, on Tuesday Martin Sullivan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, issued a statement saying the museum had removed a four-minute video from the installation made by David Wojnarowicz in 1987 whose “intention was to depict the suffering of an AIDS victim.”  You can interpret the video for yourself and read more about it on WeLoveDC or check out TBD’s extensive coverage of what’s happening.

Ok, got all that?  Fast forward to Thursday evening and the source of today’s photography, where Transformer director Victoria Reis led a silent protest with “mouths tied” beginning outside their Logan Circle art gallery, walking to the National Portrait Gallery, then onto the Capitol Building.  Transformer is running Wojnarowicz’s film in their storefront at 1404 P Street, with permission from his estate, and also wrote a letter of protest to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

You might recognize Adrian Parsons in the last photo of our post.  He scaled a ladder on the sidewalk in front of the north side of the Portrait Gallery and projected Wojnarowicz’s video onto its facade starting at 6pm.  By 8pm no one with museum security or DC police had approached him (he did make it on video himself as a Fox 5 reporter reached up to ask him a few questions).  Yet, Adrian wasn’t even supposed to be in DC.  A week-and-a-half ago he attempted to ride his bike down I-95 with the goal of attending Art Basel.  The police stopped him in Richmond and that’s as far as he got before returning to the District.

Photo Credits: Joshua Yospyn (please ask permission to use our images)

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