Program Notes

Falling Buffalos was inspired by David Wojnarowicz’s 1988- 89 photograph Untitled (Falling Buffalos). The image depicts a buffalo herd charging off a cliff and falling to their death, an early Native American hunting technique in which “buffalo runners” were sent to locate the herd and drive the bison towards the cliffs. One buffalo runner lured the herd by imitating the noises of a lost calf. Wojnarowicz compares the fate of the buffalo and the mass slaughter of the species during the 19th century to poor public health policies of the 1980s and 1990s that led to the deaths of thousands from AIDS and HIV-related illnesses.