Caring for Place with Aids Memorial Quilts in Dublin, Ireland

Abstract

abstract This paper presents empirical material drawn from an intentionally local AIDS quilting project in a disadvantaged inner-city district of Dublin, Ireland. The paper aims to address two key gaps in human geography. Firstly, by examining the AIDS quilts through their primary functions of therapy, activism, and commemoration, this paper finds an emphasis on place, rather than names that foregrounds the geographical, as opposed to merely rhetorical dimensions of the AIDS quilt. In doing so, it questions the forms of political community that have been claimed through the more well-studied NAMES Memorial Quilt. Secondly, by conceptualising AIDS quilts through the lens of humanistic geography, it reflects upon the act of quilting as producing what Yi-Fu Tuan described as a “field of care,” a place that may be more attentive to the structural AIDS vulnerability visited upon affected communities. It concludes with implications for the study of AIDS interventions amid wounded cities. As these damaged communities seek ways to repair themselves, the quilts act as paradigmatic cases of care for others, through care for place.