The Art of Connecting [SLIDESHOW] Advertisement The Art of Connecting [SLIDESHOW] Love, intimacy and HIV history abound in Eric Rhein: Lifelines. Advertisement Eric Rhein has roots in Appalachian Kentucky. He moved to New York’s East Village in 1980 and was diagnosed with HIV in 1987. When you look at images of his artwork—delicate wire assemblages and photography of tender moments—and you read the heartfelt musings collected in the monograph-memoir Eric Rhein: Lifelines, you can sense his reverence for nature, AIDS history, medical advances, human touch and family (his uncle Lige Clarke was a pioneering gay rights activist who was murdered execution style in 1975).