In “When This You See Remember Me,” Robert Storr opens his discussion of Felix Gonzalez-Torres with an anecdote about the artist’s Untitled (Placebo). The piece consists of 1,000 to 1,200 pounds of hard candies arranged on the floor of a gallery space. Storr recalls, “…two young boys race toward the rectangular mirage and frantically fill their pockets . . . a uniformed guard steps forward and admonishes them to behave” (5). Storr clarifies that the guard not only allows the children to take a few pieces of the art work, but also makes a point to explain to their mother what the piece is about.

For a discussion of artworks that involve time, such a story is helpful and possibly essential. The magic of Untitled (Placebo) is not just that it changes slowly over a long period of time, but that any single viewing, like the one Storr describes, functions as its own fleeting play, with specific characters and outcomes. A narrative exists not only in the diminishing size of the mass but also in the thousands of individual stories of how each candy is removed. Stories like this are less likely to result from more traditional, stagnant sculptures. Unique, unforeseen viewing experiences might happen in sculptures of traditional approaches, but in Untitled (Placebo) their catalyst is designed into the piece. By including the participation of the guards and allowing the viewers to take souvenirs, Gonzalez-Torres takes the theme of time to levels that not even kinetic sculpture could not reach. The open interaction between viewers and guard breaks down the structure of “museological power” and “institutional hierarchies” (6). Such a move creates a scene in ‘real world time’ where people speak to each other naturally rather than in a frozen ‘museum’ time where guards stand silently, their opinions and knowledge a mystery, while the viewer is left with only herself and her thoughts.

Storr, Robert. “When This You See Remember Me.” Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Ed. Julie Ault. Steidldangin: New York, 2006. 5-37