Name/Title
(1987) ACT UP, Silence = Death Project, Silence = Death Poster (Authorized ACT UP Printing), New York, late 1980s–early 1990sDescription
Silence = Death Project, Silence = Death, © 1987
Political advocacy poster
Designer: Silence = Death Project
Authorized use: ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power)
Country: United States
Offset print poster, plaque-mounted
This poster features the now-iconic pink triangle centered on a black field above the declarative text “SILENCE = DEATH.” The design was originally created in 1986 by the Silence = Death Project, a collective of New York–based artists and activists who sought to confront governmental inaction and public silence during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. The inverted pink triangle references the symbol used by the Nazi regime to identify homosexual men in concentration camps, reappropriated here as an emblem of resistance and urgency.
The present example is a later authorized printing produced after the Silence = Death Project granted usage rights to ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power). The lower margin includes the copyright line “© 1987 THE SILENCE = DEATH PROJECT” and language indicating use by permission by ACT UP, along with ACT UP’s New York office address (135 West 29th St., #10, New York, NY 10001). Unlike some of the earliest 1987 street posters, which contained typographical errors in agency names, this version reflects standardized and corrected institutional references. This example has been plaque-mounted.
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, the image had evolved from an anonymous street intervention into a widely recognized symbol of AIDS activism. Adopted by ACT UP as a central organizing graphic, the design functioned simultaneously as protest slogan, fundraising image, and political identifier. The stark composition and equation-like phrasing condensed a complex critique—linking governmental silence, social stigma, and preventable death—into a direct and portable visual statement.
The poster stands as one of the most influential graphic works of the AIDS activist movement and remains a defining artifact of late twentieth-century political design.Create Date
July 29, 2025Update Date
October 15, 2026