Gordon Stevenson was an artist, actor, musician and filmmaker who died of AIDS in 1982, one of the East Village art community’s first casualties of the

AIDS epidemic The global pandemic of HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2023, HIV/AIDS ...

Personal life

Born in

Dublin, Georgia Dublin is a city and county seat of Laurens County, Georgia, United States. The population was 16,074 at the 2020 census. History The City of Dublin, Georgia was incorporated by the Georgia General Assembly on December 9, 1812, and made the c ...

, he attended Eckerd College in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the List of municipalities in Florida, fifth-most populous city in Florida and the most populous city in the sta ...

, where he met

Arto Lindsay Arthur Morgan "Arto" Lindsay (born May 28, 1953) is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He was a member of the pioneering 1970s no wave group DNA, which featured on the 1978 compilation '' No New York''. In ...

in the 1970s. Following a move to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, he married Mirielle Cervenka, (also known as Spike) who was older sister of

Exene Cervenka Exene Cervenka (born Christene Lee Cervenka; February 1, 1956) is an American singer, artist, and poet. She is best known for her work as a singer in the California punk rock band X. Music career The 21-year-old Cervenka met 23-year-old m ...

of the band X). A well-known figure of the East Village underground, Stevenson was close to such Lower East Side figures as

Fun Gallery The Fun Gallery was an art gallery founded by Patti Astor and Bill Stelling in 1981. The Fun Gallery had a cultural impact until it closed in 1985. As the first art gallery in Manhattan's East Village, Manhattan, East Village, it exposed New York ...

director

Patti Astor Patricia Titchener (March 17, 1950 – April 9, 2024), known by her stage name Patti Astor, was an American performer who was a key actress in New York City underground No Wave films of the late-1970s. Astor was a key player in the East Village ...

. Stevenson's brother, Davey Stevenson, bass player in the early 1980s

Athens, Georgia Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an Research I university, ...

band Limbo District, also died of AIDS in the early 1990s. Both Gordon and Davey are buried in Dublin, Georgia.

Music

Stevenson became the bass player for

Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...

's band

Pre Teenage Jesus and the Jerks Pre or PRE may refer to: Places *Preston railway station, UK National Rail code PRE *Preston railway station, Melbourne * Prince Edward station, on Hong Kong's MTR People * Steve Prefontaine (1951–1975), an American runner nicknamed "Pre" Art ...

and

Teenage Jesus and the Jerks Teenage Jesus and the Jerks were an American no wave band, based in New York City, who formed part of the city's no wave movement. Background Lydia Lunch met saxophonist James Chance at CBGB and moved into his two-room apartment. She starte ...

between November 1977 to June 1978, one of several

No Wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

bands featured on the album ''

No New York ''No New York'' is a no wave compilation album released in 1978 by record label Antilles under the curation of producer Brian Eno. Although it only contains songs by four different artists, it has been considered important in defining and docu ...

''. Stevenson, with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, also released music on Charles Ball's Lust/Unlust label, and toured England.

Film

As an actor, he appeared in Michael McClard's 1979 no wave cinema film ''Alien Portrait'', in Eric Mitchell's 1978 film ''Kidnapped'', and again in Mitchell's 1979 film ''Red Italy''. Most notably, Stevenson directed his own no wave film ''Ecstatic Stigmatic: the film with a disease'' in 1980. Starring Mirielle Cervenka as Little Rose, ''Ecstatic Stigmatic'' also featured performances by

, Johnny O’Kane, Brenda Bergman and Anita Paltrinieri. The film premiered at the

Mudd Club The Mudd Club was a nightclub located at 77 White Street in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It operated from 1978 to 1983 as a venue for post punk underground music and no wave counterculture events. It was opened ...

on September 4, 1980.

AIDS death

Stevenson died in the early 1980s, an early casualty to the

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

epidemic, not long after his wife, Mirielle, was killed in an auto accident while visiting her sister in Los Angeles and promoting ''Ecstatic Stigmatic''.

Cookie Mueller Dorothy Karen "Cookie" Mueller (March 2, 1949 – November 10, 1989) was an American actress, writer, and Dreamlander who starred in many of filmmaker John Waters' early films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'', ''Pink Flamingos'', '' Female Trou ...

wrote about Stevenson, and quotes a personal letter from him written during his illness, in her book ''Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black'', published by

Semiotext(e) Semiotext(e) is an independent publisher of critical theory, fiction, philosophy, art criticism, activist texts and non-fiction. History Founded in 1974, ''Semiotext(e)'' began as a journal that emerged from a semiotics reading group led by Syl ...

after her death (also from AIDS, in 1989).

Footnotes

References

Carlo McCormick Carlo McCormick is an American culture critic and curator living in New York City. He is the author of numerous books, monographs and catalogues on contemporary art and artists. Pedagogic and art writing activities McCormick was Senior Editor ...

, ''The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984'', Princeton University Press, 2006. * Alan Moore and Marc Miller, eds. ''

ABC No Rio ABC No Rio is a collectively-run nonprofit arts organization on New York City's Lower East Side. Founded in 1980 in a squat at 156 Rivington Street, following the eviction of the 1979–80 Real Estate Show, the center featured an art gallery s ...

Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery'' New York: ABC No Rio with Collaborative Projects, 1985. * Masters, Marc. ''No Wave''. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007. * Pearlman, Alison, ''Unpackaging Art of the 1980s''. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2003. * Reynolds, Simon. "Contort Yourself: No Wave New York." In ''Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-punk 1978–84''. London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 2005. * Taylor, Marvin J. (ed.). ''The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984'', foreword by Lynn Gumpert. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, Gordon Year of birth missing Punk films 1982 deaths American experimental filmmakers No wave Film directors from Georgia (U.S. state) AIDS-related deaths in Georgia (U.S. state) People from Dublin, Georgia American rock bass guitarists Teenage Jesus and the Jerks members Mass media people from Atlanta