Block 3 of the Dutch AIDS Memorial Quilt, Stichting NAMENproject Nederland, 1992

Block 3 of the Dutch AIDS Memorial Quilt. Created in 1992, Block 3 is made up of 8 individual panels commemorating people that died from HIV/AIDS. This quilt block is devoted to Salvatore Mormone, Wim Linschoten, Hans Brockhoff, Freek, René Goedgeluk, Hans Faasse, Jan Willem Buijs and Drew Carter.

The Dutch AIDS Memorial Quilt comprises 30 blocks in total and, alongside quilts from across the globe, is part of one of the largest pieces of community art and health activism in the world.

The AIDS quilt represents a crucial part of 20th century medical and social history. AIDS quilts brought and continue to bring public attention to the epidemic, illustrating the sheer number of deaths whilst humanising those behind the statistics with panels dedicated to friends, lovers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt was founded by Cleve Jones in 1987. Jones wanted the memorialisation of individuals who had died from AIDS to be humanised and personal. Some panels simply say the name of an individual who had died, whilst others incorporate a combination of materials and personal objects.

The name of an individual who had died of the disease might appear to be a simple gesture, but for some families this was controversial as they felt unable to acknowledge their relative’s sexuality or lifestyle let alone their death to AIDS. At the time many obituaries listed things such as cancer or pneumonia as the cause of death rather than AIDS, so linking someone’s name to AIDS in public was both powerful and political.