Boston Day With(Out) Art Observes WAD at Medicine Wheel

For a full 24 hours from Sunday, November 30 right through Monday, December 1, Bostonians will gather at Fort Independence Castle to observe World AIDS Day with a lantern-lit procession and vigil of dance, song, ritual and prayer. The event marks the 23rd year of Medicine Wheel, the longest running art event in the city, honoring Day With(Out) Art/World AIDS Day.

"Day Without Art is an opportunity to remember the many lives cut short by AIDS and to reflect on the impact of this cultural loss. But it's also a day to celebrate humanity's shared artistic legacy," said Eric Bruehl of the Getty Museum. "Although the AIDS pandemic has claimed hundreds of artists, our continued interest and appreciation for art keeps their work alive. That is something loss will never destroy."

Medicine Wheel is an epic work of art created by Michael Dowling, Artistic Director of Medicine Wheel Productions. Produced annually since 1992 in conjunction with World AIDS Day/ A Day With(Out) Art, "Medicine Wheel," a 24-hour vigil with a major sculptural art installation, brings people from every walk of life and every social class together to commemorate the tragedy of the AIDS epidemic, or any loss, in their own communities and worldwide. The primary visual component is the wheel itself: 36 pedestals and portable shrines arranged in a circle.

Dowling developed Medicine Wheel to be a part of A Day Without Art, the visual arts community's annual response to the AIDS crisis that flowered in the late 1980s and early 1990s in New York City and other artistic centers. While most activities associated with A Day Without Art no longer take place, Medicine Wheel has grown in importance as Boston's largest annual observation of World AIDS Day. Each year the installation is based around a different element: Fire, water, earth or air. This 23rd incarnation of the Medicine Wheel is a fire year and will focus on the power of art to heal, nurture and transform.

"The need for art to help dissolve the stigma and shame associated with AIDS and to intervene in the lives of those infected and those affected by that stigma was becoming urgent," said Dowling. "Medicine Wheel continues to be a counterweight and healing place for those who come each year."

More than 16,000 offerings of articles of clothing, letters, photos, hopes, dreams, wishes, remembrances, prayers, jewelry and other artifacts of the history of AIDS in Boston have been left in the Wheel as reminders of our common humanity. This year, the offerings will be carried in processionals led by artists and spiritual leaders to the center of the Wheel to be ritually burnt, to mark each hour of December 1st.

"During these processionals we will carry offerings left from the past 22 Medicine Wheels and ritually burn them in a fire pit in the center of this year's wheel, sending our hopes, dreams, prayers, remembrances from earth to heaven," said Dowling. "This year's vigil is going to be a wonderful, magical event. [It] opens with a group of Coptic Deacons, chanting Midnight Prayer as we make our way in a candlelight procession into the fort. Our Creative Partners from Kairos Dance will follow leading us into the dreamtime. Greet the dawn with Buddhist monks chanting."