Anthony Charles Carden (1961–1995), activist and actor, became interested in performance while a school student at Knox Grammar, Wahroonga. In 1983 and 1984 he studied at New York’s Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and appeared in various ventures including Shakespeare in the Park. Returning to Australia, he worked in theatre, film and television productions in Sydney and Melbourne before being diagnosed with AIDS. Putting aside his acting career, he joined ACTUP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and utilised his wit and theatricality to garner support from politicians and members of the medical profession for enhanced standards of medical treatment, access to antiviral and other medications, adequate hospital facilities (including beds), and safe sex education. An activist against discrimination in all its forms, he was a significant figure in the fight against homophobia and in the prevention of discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS, campaigning for their inclusion in the policy-making process. He worked with Clover Moore, then a member of the New South Wales Parliament, to raise $1,000,000 towards refurbishment of the St Vincent's Hospital AIDS ward, Ward 17 South. In 1994, working toward an extension of the ward, he staged a demonstration targeting the NSW Minister for Health, who arrived at his home to find 100 hospital beds with 100 'patients' and 100 nurses on his front lawn under a sign requesting 'AIDS Beds Now'. Carden played a significant part in the development of the television anti-discrimination campaign 'AIDS is a VIRUS. Viruses Don't Discriminate, People Do.' In an address to launch the campaign, he proclaimed that those who had died of AIDS were being refused autopsies; soon afterwards, this situation came to an end. From 1993 onwards Carden assembled a work called Warrior Blood, comprising blood droplets collected from AIDS patients, medical staff, academics, entertainers, religious personnel and others on fabric swatches. The work, which was ongoing and intentionally unfinished, was exhibited in Don't Leave Me This Way: Art in the Age of AIDS at the National Gallery of Australia in 1994–1995. His health having deteriorated throughout his years of activism, Carden died five years after his diagnosis, just as life-saving medications had started to become available in Australia.
