Originally uploaded by shinyu32.
Eduardo has a nice Felix Gonzales-Torres image up on his blog. Here is a photograph of a piece that appears in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago that I took on my November trip. The bulbs burn out reflecting the ephemerality and transience of life.
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I am so moved by his work. And I'm sure this is due to the fact that I'm aware of the struggles in his life. His lover dying of AIDS before him. His own illness. Gonzalez-Torres hoped art patrons would enjoy his pieces on their own, without the "aid" of biography. He was adamant about just being an artist. Not a gay artist. Not a Cuban-American artist. But I can't help but see him and his lover in his work. And his life always found a way into his work. In one candy spill the weight of the candy equals the combined weight of him and his lover. Gallery patrons are encouraged to take candy, but the supply is always replenished so that the spill maintains the proper weight.
Replenish. That's the key word to most of his catalog. Light bulbs in his string displays are replenished. Candy in the spills in replenished. Sheets of paper from his paper stacks are replenished. The batteries in his wall clocks are replenished.
Heartbreaking.
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