'Ignorance = Fear' t-shirt

Keith Haring and Act Up

Graffiti artist Keith Haring (1958-90) designed this iconic T-shirt for Act Up (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power), a defiant activist movement formed initially in New York in March 1987 in response to the AIDS crisis. Its message of SILENCE = DEATH was provocative and acted as a declaration of war. Many activists wore this t-shirt. 

The movement's motto was to 'Act Up, Fight Back, Fight AIDS' and people did so in their thousands in street demonstrations against the state and medical companies in a bid for life-saving drugs and equal healthcare for all.

In the 1980s artists such as Haring found that T-shirts were an effective, affordable and accessible way to get their work into everyday life. T-shirts were also a relatively safe way to wear potentially dangerous or subversive messages, and were effective when out on the street in demonstrations as their messages could be picked up by the media and broadcast widely.

Act Up continues to be an international direct action advocacy group working to bring about improved legislation, medical research, treatment and policies that will ultimately bring an end to HIV and AIDS.