Updated 4:30 p.m. with comments from Transformer's Victoria Reis.

Updated 1:20 p.m. with additional protest information and comments from the WPA's Lisa Gold.

Transformer Gallery is hosting an all-day screening of the David Wojnarowicz video that was removed from the Portrait Gallery exhibit Hide/Seek amid conservative pressure over its religious and homosexual imagery. The gallery says that yesterday's incident was censorship, and they will be screening the video beginning at 1 p.m. today in honor of World AIDS Day. Wojnarowicz's video, "Fire in My Belly," addressed the AIDS crisis. He died of AIDS in 1992.

Though the video currently being shown in the gallery is the 4-minute online excerpt, which you can see here, Transformer director Victoria Reis contacted Wojnarowicz's estate for permission to screen the full, 30-minute version. It's being shipped to the gallery, and when it arrives, Reis says they will play the video in the gallery window until the Portrait Gallery reinstates the work. Reis says the president of her board, James Alefantis, spoke with Wojnarowicz's partner at the time of his death, Tom Rauffenbart, who gave the gallery his blessing.

"[Rauffenbart] said David would be furious at the situation," says Reis. "His exact quote was, 'David would rip their balls off.'"

Transformer will also be hosting a protest march tomorrow, Dec. 2, according to Reis. The march will begin at the gallery at 5:30, and arrive at the Portrait Gallery at 6 p.m. Marchers will be covering their mouths with black tape in honor of Wojnarowicz, says Reis – imagery inspired by his art.

Today, a single protester, artist Adam Griffith, has handcuffed himself to the railing of the G Street side of the Portrait Gallery. He is protesting the museum's decision, not the show. He is holding mirror inscribed with the repeated phrase "Put it back."

When the news of the Portrait Gallery's decision broke yesterday, many members of the art community were wondering who would step up to host the video. The Transformer display is the first official response from D.C. artists and galleries, but will certainly not be the last. When Robert Mapplethorpe's The Perfect Moment was dropped by the Corcoran Gallery in 1989, the Washington Project for the Arts took the exhibit instead. It attracted crowds of nearly 50,000 people, and donations of $40,000. Artists also protested in front of the Corcoran, and projected Mapplethorpe's photos on the building's facade. The Corcoran's then-director, Christina Orr-Cahall, resigned under pressure.

Lisa Gold, director of the WPA, says that the organization plans to respond to the decision in a statement, but has not yet planned any protest action. They do not plan to host a screening of the video, or an exhibit of Wojnarowicz's art.

"Taking one work out of context — that's not the intention of the curators of the show," says Gold. "I think someone could present a retrospective here, to give the fuller picture. Taking the one work out of context is a little sensational, and it's not necessarily serving the best interest of the artist, but I'm happy the work is being shown."

"This isn't about sensationalizing anything," responds Reis. "This is about providing a public voice to an issue of censorship. We certainly would welcome all of our colleagues to get together and write a letter to the Smithsonian, that we co-write or that Transformer writes, that [the work] should be reinstated."

Reis says she's heard from a number of her art colleagues, who support the gallery in its protest and screening.

"I'm shocked that in 2010 this is happening," says Reis. "I thought we were beyond this level of fear."

From Transformer:

The National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution have CENSORED the 1987 video work A Fire in My Belly, by David Wojnarowicz.

Under pressure from the Catholic League, The Smithsonian Institution has removed this work from the National Portrait Gallery's current Hide/Seek exhibition.

Transformer will begin showing this important video work in our 1404 P Street, NW Washington, DC storefront project space beginning at 1 pm today.

In honor of World AIDS Day & Day With(out) Art, and the many alternative art spaces, visual arts organizations, artists, and activists around the world that have paved the path for freedom of expression & the existence of experimental arts venues like Transformer that champion the artist's voice without constraints, we are proud to be able to share this work with DC audiences.

Many thanks to Patrick O'Connell and Visual AIDS for inspiration.
Additional thanks to our colleagues at Provisions Library.