(1993) c. ACT UP, Robert Birch, aka Cardiac Arrest, Bush AIDS Flag Poster, United States, early 1990s

Art

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Sean Massey & Loren Couch Collections

Name/Title

(1993) c. ACT UP, Robert Birch, aka Cardiac Arrest, Bush AIDS Flag Poster, United States, early 1990s

Description

Robert Birch, aka Cardiac Arrest, Bush AIDS Flag, early 1990s Political protest and AIDS activism poster Publisher: ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) Country: United States Offset print poster, approx. 24 × 36 in. (60 × 91 cm) This poster appropriates the design of the United States flag. The red and white horizontal stripes remain intact, but the blue canton is altered: instead of white stars, it contains a grid of skull-and-crossbones symbols. Beneath the flag, bold capital letters read “BUSH AIDS FLAG.” The visual intervention is stark and confrontational. By replacing the stars—symbols of states and national unity—with emblems of death, the image reframes the flag as a marker of mortality rather than sovereignty. The addition of the phrase “BUSH AIDS FLAG” explicitly attributes responsibility to President George H. W. Bush, transforming a national symbol into a political indictment. Produced by ACT UP in the early 1990s, the poster reflects a period of intense activism directed at federal inaction and inadequate funding during the AIDS crisis. ACT UP’s graphic strategies frequently relied on visual appropriation, bold typography, and symbolic inversion to render governmental policy legible as a matter of life and death. Here, the alteration of the flag functions as both accusation and memorial—suggesting that preventable deaths were embedded within national policy decisions. The work exemplifies the visual rhetoric of AIDS activism in which public health was framed not solely as a medical issue but as a site of political accountability. It stands as part of the historical record of protest art that sought to make visible the human cost of delayed governmental response during the epidemic.

Artwork Details

Medium

Screen Print

Subject

ACT UP

Series

ACT UP Posters

Made/Created

Artist

Robert Birch, aka Cardiac Arrest (Artist)

Date made

1991

Place

* Untyped Place

United States

Edition

First edition

Create Date

July 29, 2025

Update Date

October 15, 2026