Arrivals + Departures Wednesday 5 May 2021 Artists Yara and Davina create ambitious public artworks that respond to site, context and audience. Their inventive, issue-based work is wide ranging, and uses a lightness of touch that make their works both poetic and universal. Arrivals + Departures invites the public to share the names of those who have arrived and departed on live boards, to acknowledge, celebrate and commemorate. On Wednesday 5 May 2021 Yara and Davina invited me to ‘takeover’ the boards of their Brighton International Festival exhibit in Pavilion Gardens to commemorate the lives of those who died from an AIDS-related illness in Brighton & Hove. It was an honour & a pleasure to be invited to be a part of this wonderful public artwork exploring birth, death, and the journey in between. ‘In the roaring waters, I hear the voices of dead friends Love is life that lasts forever My hearts memory turns to you...’    Andrea Philippe Regard   Arrival - 16 March 1965 / Departure - 13 May 1991   Graham Charles Wilkinson   Arrival - 08 December 1949 / Died 22 August 1990 (London Lighthouse)   David Andrew Jones ‘Cooch’   Arrival - 17 July 1962 / Departure - 18 October 1999   Gary Beverly   Arrival - 26 September 1956 / Departure - 23 June 1993   Father Marcus Riggs   Arrival -1955 / Departure - 10 July 1998   Clive Bentley   Arrival - 07 August 1961 / Departure - 17 August 1994   Kevin John Dodd   Arrival - 21 May 1962 / Departure - February 1992 The quoted text comes from the film ‘Blue’ by Derek Jarman.

Kevin John Dodd When I think of Kevin John Dodd, the memory that ignites is the one of him emerging from the Pepper-pot toilets by Queens Park one summer dressed in a T shirt and shorts. When he saw me walking into the park, his face broke into a broad grin and we both burst out laughing, because he knew that I knew what he’d been getting up to. I met Kevin at the Sussex AIDS Centre and Helpline when I was a volunteer there, and we got along straight away due to a shared sense of humour and a love of self-deprecation. Kevin was a member of Our House BP, and also sat on the board of the Sussex AIDS Centre as their representative. When Kevin died in February 1992, his service was conducted by Father Marcus Riggs, and took place at the Woodvale Crematorium off Lewes Road like many in those days. I remember the order of service had a black and white outline of Mickey Mouse on the cover page which made me smile. The music Kevin chose for his funeral was an eclectic mix. I remember ‘Nimrod’ from Elgar’s Enigma Variations in particular filling the space with undulating dissonant chords and an emotional resonance that had me sobbing into my sleeve. Later in the service ‘Reach out and touch’ by Diana Ross also hit the same spot albeit in a very different way. I think it was Kevin’s funeral that made me think for the first time about the songs that I might use to serenade my own passing, because back then life seemed so fleeting and death was everywhere. I will always remember Kevin for being cheeky, confidant, funny and completely fearless and all these years later, he is still missed by many. Harry Hillery 2021

The Brighton AIDS Memorial Exhibition was displayed at the Dorset Gardens Methodist Church and the Ledward Centre on Jubilee Street between the 24th November and the 4th December 2021 'Love is life that lasts forever'

To mark World AIDS Day 2023, the Brighton AIDS Memorial was proud to display two Brighton specific panels on loan from the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt collection. This was made possible with the generous support of the LGBTQ Workers Forum. The panels which were both sewn in 1991, had not been seen on display in the city for over 30 years.