Poster for David Wojnarowicz’s Metamorphosis at Civilian Warfare

New York: Civilian Warfare, [1984]. Offset. 18 x 18 in. Very good with slight yellowing and creasing to edges. Item #6691

Poster for David Wojnarowicz’s final exhibition at Civilian Warfare, which opened May 5, 1984. The show featured paintings, collages, and sculptures: the painting Fuck You Faggot Fucker, the plaster head series Metamorphosis, and other sculptures.

The poster is illustrated with a photograph by Marion Scemema depicting Wojnarowicz in his kitchen with some of the heads he produced for the show. The heads, collectively titled Metamorphosis, would be situated on shelves above a painted bulls-eye, a stark reminder of a firing line. Representing the 23 pairs of chromosomes in the human DNA, Wojnarowicz explained the work was about the evolution of consciousness.

Incredibly, the opening of this exhibition was delayed as the audience stood outside watching Wojnarowicz finish the work. Dean Savard, Alan Barrows, and Wojnarowicz had installed the show earlier that day but after Wojnarowicz left the heads began to slide off the shelves upon which they perched. Savard and Barrows moved the installation to another wall and repainted the bullseye. Wojnarowicz returned, furious with Savard’s bullseye, and finished the installation himself. He later told biographer Cynthia Carr that he liked this delay for its disregard of art-world custom.

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