phs and computer-generated images, leather and lame, wedding rings, [and] cremation ashes" (Hawkins 75). While some panels reflect artistic sophistication, others can best be described as "tacky." But it is the "lived tackiness" of the AIDS Quilt that sets it apart from formal, structured modes of mourning.
The artistic freedom of the presentation of the names on the AIDS Quilt is another example of its earthiness. Legal names are displayed, but just as often nicknames are used. Examples include "Fuzzy," "Dougie," or "The Best Daddy in the World."
The names themselves are central to the act of mourning. Since ancient times, the names of the dead have been inscribed on tombstones as means of commemoration. For instance, after World War I, the Allied forces decided to provide every fallen soldier with a regulation-sized gravestone on which his or her name was inscribed. Where bodies could not be identified or remains could not be found, the soldiers's names were inscribed on stone monuments. Likewise, Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, used names in her stunning example of funereal architecture. Thus the use of names is a time-honored expression of grief.
The AIDS Quilt project was conceived as a mechanism to express grief and to focus public attention on the AIDS crisis. It was the brainchild of gay rights activist Cleve Jones, who first conceived of the idea of an AIDS memorial during an announcement in November 1985 that the AIDS death toll in San Francisco had just reached 1,000. Jones realized that no means existed to visualize this dramatic tragedy: " . . . it occurred to him that if that many corpses were to litter a field, the public would perceive the extent of such a loss" (Hawkins 756). During a subsequent candlelight march that same month to commemorate the death of Harvey Milk, Jones asked the march participants to tape placards bearing the names of AIDS dead on the federal building in ...