Ho Tam, Urn with AIDS news reportage (FC-002) (2025)

Ho Tam  
Urn with AIDS news reportage (FC-002) 
2025  
inkjet on glossy photo paper  
edition of 5  
22 x 17 inches
unframed
 
 
Funerary urns (also called burial urns) were used by many civilizations. After a person died, survivors cremated the body and collected the ashes in an urn. Pottery urns, dating from about 7000 BC, have been found in an early Jiahu site in China. 
 
In China, spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has been through intravenous drug use and prostitution. In many rural areas of China during the 1990s, particularly in the province of Henan, hundreds of thousands of farmers and peasants were infected through participation in state-run blood collection programs in which contaminated equipment was reused. The number of people affected by HIV has been estimated at between 430,000 and 1.5 million.
 
The underlying government response to HIV/AIDS is now that of preemptive intervention. In 2013, AIDS is still the top source of death from infectious disease in China, with over 10,000 cases. The major transmission route today is sex, with gay sex as a significant factor.