Exhibition Overview

Blood Mirror, organized by artist Jordan Eagles, seeks to create an open dialogue and effect change around the US Food & Drug Administration's current discriminatory policy on blood donations from gay and bisexual men. 

In 2015, Jordan Eagles enlisted a group of nine extraordinary gay men, each with a unique life story, to donate their blood in protest of the FDA’s ban and for the creation of a sculpture, Blood Mirror. Leo Herrera, activist and filmmaker, documented the process in an original, political art film.

The men who donated their blood to this project include: An 88-year-old openly gay priest; A Nigerian gay rights activist on political asylum in the U.S.; A Co-Founder of Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC); The CEO of GMHC; An identical gay twin whose straight brother is eligible to donate; A captain in the Army who served two terms in Iraq and was discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (reinstated to service in 2014); A married transgender male couple, and; A bisexual father of two. Dr. Howard Grossman, former director of the American Academy of HIV Medicine, was the medical supervisor on the project, as well as a blood donor. Each man is currently ineligible to donate blood under the FDA’s current policy — but since they cannot donate their blood to save lives, they’ve chosen to donate their blood for art.

The sculpture, Blood Mirror, is a seven-foot-tall monolith in which the viewer can see him or herself reflected in the blood of the nine donors, which has been encased and fully preserved. A totem of science and equality, the sculpture is a time capsule of the donors’ blood that embodies the 32-year history of the FDA’s discriminatory ban.

September 12 through October 18, 2015

Jordan Eagles, Blood Mirror, 2015. 
Blood of nine men, preserved in Plexiglas, UV resin, 84 x 28 x 28 in. Courtesy of the Artist.