Ronald Lockett (1965–1998), Fever Within, 1995
Found tin, colored pencil, nails, on wood, 47 x 51 in.; Ackland Art Museum, Museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
In 1995, Lockett undertook a series of works that presented the figure of a nude seated cross-legged on a small carpet or barren floor. He titled the pieces Fever Within, referring most immediately to the HIV with which he had been diagnosed in 1994 or 1995. Lockett made at least half a dozen iterations of Fever Within, including several roughly four-foot-square variations and a rectangular composition fashioned from two salvaged metal panels stacked vertically and nailed to a recycled wood support. Both Lockett and his girlfriend knew they had been infected with HIV, and each blamed the other for the transmission of the disease. Betrayed by love, exchanging accusations of who communicated the disease to whom, Lockett spoke to the fate he shared with his partner through the lone feminine figure visually isolated against a ruined and indefinite metal background.
