 Written by Jeff Parker & Craig Corpora The Shroud of Buddha (1992) is the first addition to Jerome Caja’s other artworks in the SFMOMA collection since the the artist’s death in 1995. Jerome faced his own mortality from AIDS by tailoring three life-sized shrouds: The Shroud of Bozo, The Shroud of Glam-O-Rama, and The Shroud of Buddha, each one a perfect fit for his public personas: the clown, a drag queen, an enigmatic muse. The shrouds started out as rubbings of his made-up face, his living flesh forming the facial features. Ghostly smudges from mascara, eye shadow, foundation, blush, lipstick on his face were transferred to textile, stretched, embedded with his own “DNA,” then gloriously and elaborately embellished, and marketed as “genuine.” Jerome described The Shroud of Bozo, “as wide as bed sheet, with hair out to here,” gesturing with arms spread. The Shroud of Glam-O-Rama was on a cheesecloth-type material, “wispy, sparkly, and delicate, so you could see through it in places.” The shrouds all included shadowy imprints of hands or fingers clutching the textile, supporting it in place; the artist taking creative control, shaping his own final arrangements. “You can tell it’s me in The Shroud of Buddha by my nail polish,” he laughed, flickering his red fingernails before his eyes. Today it appears that only The Shroud of Buddha survives. Jeff Parker and James Collins purchased it from the artist in 1992 with the understanding that it would eventually be donated to the SFMOMA, and this unrestricted gift fulfills that promise. The Shroud of Buddha was created for and premiered at The Remains of the Day exhibition at Southern Exposure Gallery in 1992. The Remains of the Day, guest curated by City Lights Books editor Amy Scholder and artist/designer Rex Ray, was a powerful testimony and elegy to the effects of AIDS on an artist’s career. Jerome Caja used a friend and mentor’s ashes, the cremains of Charles Sexton, who had died from AIDS the year before at age 34, to create works of art for this groundbreaking and challenging show. This exhibit was installed in San Francisco well before the ACT UP Ashes to Action protest where activists staged a “political funeral” to express grief and rage at President George H.W. Bush’s inaction, by dumping the ashes of loved ones who died from AIDS on the White House lawn in Washington, DC. The Shrouds are ghosts and reliquaries of the vanished artist; as clown, as drag queen, and as a joyful participant in the sorrows of the world: “It really is me behind there, and I am watching you.” Special thanks to Anthony Cianciolo of The Jerome Project and the Estate of Jerome Caja for their work in preserving and promoting Jerome’s legacy.  Collection SFMOMA – Gift of Jeff Parker & James Collins, 2018 |
by Anthony Cianciolo
Here is an excerpt from Glen's essay in the Art AIDS America catalog featuring Jerome Caja: "In the context of Art AIDS America, at one end of the spectrum is Nayland Blake, whose work is cerebral, playful, and at times arcane, but notably attuned to the metaphorical and actual effects of HIV/AIDS on the city's psyche; on the other is Jerome Caja, whose fetish paintings of scary clowns and skinny drag queens rendered in nail polish are intuitive and dreamlike, evoking a scene out of an eroticized Hieronymus Bosch painting but with figures dressed in ripped fishnets and ornamented with crudely rendered Happy Faces. The works of many other artists can be located at various points between these intellectualized and expressionistic impulses."
 The San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) Continues to Support Jerome Caja!
Check out the recently published online Indiewire Exclusive (SF Film Society Awards Residencies to New Filmmakers) announcing the new FilmHouse awards. The Jerome Project is one of the recipients! Two years ago we were awarded the one-year FilmHouse residency, after that we were awarded a one-year anchor tenant position at FIlmHouse, and now we have been given a one-year Flex-Use tenant position. This new residency will take place in the FilmHouse location on Broadway in North Beach in the old World Theater building. It is so important to have community around you to share your accomplishments and struggles. One of the biggest challenges documentary filmmakers face is the years of extensive development that can leave directors feel like they are enclosed in a vacuum. A residency program puts working filmmakers under one roof to expose each other to those daily hurdles and shared experiences. The multiple residencies at SFFS have been crucial for The Jerome Project by allowing outside perspectives to enhance its development. At FilmHouse we found a safe space to hold meetings, host events, and participate in many in-house workshops, peer-to-peer presentations, and continuing education classes. Again, thank you SFFS. Your support is golden! Indiewire Exclusive Article by Ruben Guevara: SF Film Society Awards Residencies to New Filmmakers SFFS Official Website: San Francisco FIlm Society SFFS Residency Programs: Filmmaker360 Film House SFFS Filmmaker360 Donation Page: The Jerome Project by Anthony Cianciolo
by Anthony Cianciolo
 Triptych from the "3304 St. Clair Series" - by Anna van der Meulen
laser ink-jet prints on aluminum with a high gloss finish Spring 1988, 6in x 4in (each) |
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