June 12 – December 18, 2009

This exhibition was originated in Nairobi, Kenya and was launched in 2004 by the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health Foundation (TICAH). Focusing on Body Mapping, a technique derived from Memory Work that was pioneered by the HIV-positive Ugandan women’s group NACWOLA, this work originated as a means of helping HIV-positive women cope with the fact that they were likely to die prematurely and leave their children behind. Body Mapping is a process through which life-size silhouette self-portraiture is used to tell about the feelings, memories, treatment, and identities of those likely to die of AIDS. These powerful portraits, and the celebratory process used to paint them, are vehicles to explore their options, their choices, what they can do, and how the attitudes and behavior of others affects their ability to stay healthy.