Fertility 2 is a 1983 screen print by Keith Haring. Rich in glowing color and potent imagery, Fertility 2 finds Haring’s hieroglyphics-inspired language telling of the rise of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa and its cataclysmic effects on pregnant people who were at risk of passing the virus to their children during childbirth. Heavily involved in the fight for AIDS education and the elimination of disease’s stigma, Keith Haring created the Fertility suite as an acknowledgment of the immeasurable effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on society and a pillar of hope for a future with a cure

Haring displays a pyramid spotted as a symbol of HIV infection, being zapped by a pair of UFOs, and a shocked, pregnant woman posed as if trying to attract assistance. The additions of spaceships are not random; the symbolic encyclopedia Haring developed to codify his images into specific language used UFOs as a symbol of “the other”. Similarly, dotted figures and objects in his illustrations also signify otherness, ostracism, as well as illnesses and especially AIDS. Ever committed to social and racial justice, in Fertility 2 Haring seems to use the UFO as a call for marginalized groups to empower one another and to promote the awareness of the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

See also: Fertility 1, Fertility 3, Fertility 4, and Fertility 5.