City Celebrates AIDS Day With Condom Art Show

Brightly colored, beaded and shiny metallic condom artworks are on display this week at the Cambridge Cares About AIDS office as part of the city's observance of World AIDS Day.

The show, entitled "Sacred Condoms," exhibits the works of Karen E. Norberg, a psychiatrist who graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1978.

The city is hoping its celebration of an international AIDS day will integrate "social service agencies with the art community to regenerate people's interest in AIDS prevention," said Sacha Rockwell, coordinator of special events for Cambridge Cares About AIDS.

Norberg, who created her first condom masterpiece as part of an "Art About AIDS" show in 1990, said this form of art allows her to contribute to AIDS prevention through events like those of Cambridge while combining medicine and art.

The exhibit seeks to generate positive feelings about sexuality and condoms by treating them almost as ritual objects. And Norberg says she hopes to change the cultural association of condoms by presenting them in a unusual and provocative way, through art.

Norberg's first pieces were composed of beads and feather, a reflection of her association of condoms with ritual and religious tradition.

The works are composed of a variety of media, ranging from feathers and tinted plaster to metal.

"This seems to be the favorite for many people," Norberg said as she pointed to a bright orange and yellow beaded condom trimmed with white rabbit fur, "for good luck."

Another piece features a latex condom surrounded by an oblong baby blanket-like cover of blue, yellow, pink and white yarn.

Norberg also created a postcard which the Cambridge Arts Council sent to 2,000 residents yesterday to raise awareness of the disease. The card has a photo of "fossilized condoms" preserved in tinted plaster castings designed specifically for the Arts Council.

"I'm mostly a physician--I've done art for a long time and have been getting more serious in the past few years, but it hasn't been particularly related to medicine," Norberg said.

Rockwell said education outreach and discussion about AIDS tends to be overwhelming verbally-oriented.

But Norberg's artwork provides an alternative, facilitating debate through visual imagery, Rockwell said.

"We tried to make sure that a lot of community leaders and people involved in city politics and education [received the cards]," said Hasthor Yngvason, director of the Arts Council's Gallery 57.

Next February, Norberg's condom art will be featured at Gallery 57 in an exhibit produced in cooperation with Cambridge Cares and the Cambridge Council on the Status of Women.

The Arts Council one of many organizations involved in yesterday's "Day Without Art" world AIDS awareness events is also planning other events for the city.

"We are doing long term programming with other community organizations," said Yngvason. "This has more value than one day of programming.