At age four, Charles LeDray learned to sew from his mother, recalling “the more I did, the more I wanted to do.” Each connected to its neighboring garments, these handmade outfits suggest a spectrum of identities. Their tiny scale asks us to look carefully and closely. This quality dovetails with caretaking, a key aspect of the AIDS crisis, which was at its peak when LeDray made this work. Its title refers to the group of diseases called ARC (Aids Related Complex). The piece is not an upright, cheerful rainbow, but an elegiac, leaning arc. On a psychological level, the work evokes a variety of associations, from the bittersweet memories of childhood to the utopian vision of a diverse society at peace.

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