Presented as part of Scientia Sexualis, POZ Since 1492 (2016/2024) by Demian DinéYazhi’ (b. 1983, Diné/Navajo) elongates the timescale of the ongoing AIDS crisis. With the alternate title The First Infection and appropriating imagery from Jean Leon Gerome Ferris’ infamous painting The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, 1621 (c. 1912), the artist connects the violence of settler colonialism and germ warfare to government neglect and Western epistemologies of health.

DinéYazhi’ is a trans nonbinary visual artist, writer, and organizer of R.I.S.E.—Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment—a direct action initiative to amplify Indigenous art and culture. Moving between art museum and protest rally, they use institutional critique as a mirror to turn the colonial gaze back onto their audience. With POZ Since 1492, the artist transforms the museum’s façade into a public service announcement: we live on stolen land.

POZ Since 1492 was first made and distributed in 2016 as a shareable print for Day With(out) Art, an annual call to mourning and action organized by Visual AIDS. Visit the front desk for resources about HIV and health disparities among Indigenous communities and https://nativegov.org/ for resources about the land back movement.