Untitled (Burning Man)

Responding to the poverty, sex work, and drug use that Wojnarowicz experienced firsthand, his work exposes systems of power and oppression. Paper money, hospital patients, syringes, bomber planes, and animal carcasses recur in his oeuvre. He was an outspoken critic of New York City’s Cardinal O’Connor for disregarding AIDS, and incorporated crucifixes and burning figures into compositions such as this one.

Wojnarowicz also used fragments of maps in his collages, writing, "By ripping the map into pieces I’ve suddenly erased all these borders and I’ve completely joined opposing governments. It’s a metaphor for a sense of groundlessness and anarchy: No more governments no more borders."