Experiencing Culture: Can Art Save Lives? The Epidemic Exhibit and a Conversation with Dr. Eric Avery
Art has the potential to be truth and even life in a world where people are dying quickly from stigmatized issues. Dr. Eric Avery and Adam DelMarcelle are dedicated to this idea, forming two halves of a contemporary, collaborative art exhibit titled Epidemic. The exhibit, which opened on October 25th and will be displayed in York College’s Cora Miller Gallery until December 19th, showcases, through a variety of media, the harmful effects of AIDS and opioid abuse on our society.
According to the artists, the harsh reality of these issues has influenced both of them on a personal level. Although Dr. Avery graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in art, he decided, during the Vietnam War, to become a physician in order to help those in need. He spent much of his time treating malnourished patients in Somalia before eventually returning to the U.S. to become a psychiatrist and provide healthcare to people who were suffering from AIDS. (Dr. Avery was “deconstructed” by his experiences in Africa — by the time he got back to the US, they’d invented 20 new flavors of Pop Tarts while he had been in a place with no food, where people had to melt plastic to fix their shoes.) Due to his extensive medical background, as well as his status as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Dr. Avery has become all too familiar with the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases through the experiences of his patients and friends. Likewise, Mr. DelMarcelle, who went to school for graphic design after going on a 10-year hiatus, lost his brother to a heroin overdose. In addition to teaching art classes at YCP, he is now working with organizations such as the York Harm Reduction Project in order to raise awareness and prevent these tragedies from happening to others.
In order to increase public consciousness, Dr. Avery and Mr. DelMarcelle have put together a series of artworks that aim to be jarringly thought-provoking, raising questions among viewers and promoting public discussions regarding these issues. The high levels of prejudice surrounding victims of opioid abuse and AIDS were brought to light during the art exhibit’s opening ceremony, in which the artists explained that “reducing negative stigmas leads to healing.” Despite the fact that de-stigmatization can be a slow and painstaking process, it can start with the simplest of things, such as tailoring our language (for example, Mr. DelMarcelle encourages people to refer to addiction as substance abuse disorder because it is a health condition rather than a character flaw), or revealing untold stories through the meaningful strokes of a paintbrush. Even though art has often been created for solely commercial or aesthetic purposes, Dr. Avery and Mr. DelMarcelle’s stunning exhibit is proof that it can also be used to save lives.
After the discussion, we had the opportunity to speak directly with Dr. Avery and walk with him around the exhibit. He was eager to talk about the context, his mission, and the art surrounding us.
During the interview, Dr. Avery explained that when he was twelve years old, he began making print cards. His mother encouraged this, and he was even able to begin selling them in a yarn store on Highway 80, the road that ran through the small town of Pecos, Texas, where he grew up. He especially liked printmaking due to the fact that he would always be able to keep a copy for himself — a unique aspect that attracts many people to the medium. As of today, Dr. Avery has been making prints for nearly 60 years.
Though he will always have a special place in his heart for printmaking, Dr. Avery has also opened himself up to other mediums such as interactive art and performance art. In a prior exhibit, he had opened a clinic in the middle of an art museum. The clinic was fully operational, and those who came to see the artwork could also receive a free STD screening. In doing so, he wanted to “make the arts and life come together.” Dr. Avery also talked about the importance of sharing information about issues affecting society as a whole, and how to introduce people to this knowledge through art.
The idea of providing information to people through art is something that has always resonated with Dr. Avery. In fact, that is what led him to contribute to Epidemic in the first place. He saw the passion and commitment that Mr. DelMarcelle had about both raising awareness of the opioid epidemic in society and making art that serves a purpose. Not only is artwork able to affect the audience, but it affects them in a multitude of different ways. Dr. Avery has seen such transformation in not only those who experience his work, but also himself as an artist.
Out of all the different pieces at the exhibit, the piece that Dr. Avery believes will resonate the most with people is Mr. DelMarcelle’s interactive one. Dr. Avery calls this piece the “emotional room.” It is a representation of how Mr. DelMarcelle found his deceased brother after an overdose. Dr. Avery saw that this room had the “potential of changing some behavior” in an individual. He also loved the duality that this piece added to the exhibit, because printmakers make “many things to keep your emotions at bay,” while this room forces a person to face those emotions head-on. To Dr. Avery, this exhibit “has a deeply emotional part” tucked away in the interactive backroom that contrasts with “this beautiful distancing informational aspect” in the main room.
While some artists prefer working on their own, Dr. Avery has been branching out and working with other individuals for different exhibits. He declared, “As people, [we’re] made to be in relationships with others and we’re often better when we’re with other people.” He sees working with others as a way to bounce ideas off one another in order to develop the relationship between the artwork and the audience. It’s useful for “figuring out in relationships how you share space, have a discussion together, resolve issues.” In the future, Dr. Avery hopes to work with more artists such as Mr. DelMarcelle and Sue Coe as well as incorporate different forms like dance, storytelling, and plays to connect with even more people through art.
Exhibits must cut to the core of subjects that may indeed be painful or controversial. Dr. Avery explained, “As art becomes more and more connected up to ways in which the world is working, we need artist to be informed by the world.” They can achieve this by exploring anything from healthcare to the destructive effects of the War on Drugs. “It’s a giant spectrum of possibilities. And I only say that, because art students tend to think that they can only be in the silo of art and creativity. Really, though, art and the world cross over and one informs the other.” And those in the sciences — medicine, in particular — shouldn’t be afraid to think of their labor as art, too. “As medicine becomes more and more visual, because of all the imaging and data that’s being collected visually, we need visual thinkers in the practice of medicine.”
Dr. Avery and Mr. DelMarcelle together aim to convey the realities of these epidemics in in communities. We all can benefit from the message to “learn something, do something.” Although Epidemic deals with tragedy and death, audience members are encouraged to engage and ask questions about “what it means to be alive at this time.” Slowly but surely, this is how lives are saved. As Dr. Avery put it, “We need hope.”
Marissa Gaeta is a senior majoring in Biology and minoring in Professional Writing. She considers herself from Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York, PA. Growing up, Marissa always had a wide range of interests in science related-topics as well as the arts, even being published in her high school’s poetry book. She loves movies, anime, good jokes and puns, and having fun with her family and friends (while kicking their butts at Yahtzee). This is her first semester of working on The York Review.
Isabella Pham is a sophomore majoring in Professional Writing. She is from Harrisburg, PA, and has been interested in visual and literary art for as long as she can remember. Although she has written articles for the website Her Campus, this semester will be her first time working on The York Review. Aside from writing, Isabella also enjoys watching cooking videos, having late-night conversations about life, and playing Pokemon Go around campus (even though it’s not cool anymore).