When first reading about Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled” (Placebo) piece, I was assuming and was led to believe that it was dealing strictly with the AIDS crisis. Later in the reading Storr brings up the relation between the candy and sexuality, however still relating to AIDS. It seems that Gonzalez Torres’s focus was directly on AIDS, however as Storr mentions, “his art is not solely or even primarily dedicated to the AIDS epidemic” (Storr, 9). Instead his piece was also making a statement about time and mortality. The installation piece would not be reconstructed until the viewers consumed every piece candy. He did this to symbolize the amount of time and the number of deaths due to AIDS. Storr states he did this to represent that, “it may die again, and again, ad infinitum, thus slowly ceaselessly rehearsing not one death or two, not just Ross’s death or Gonzalez-Torres’s own, but many, many more” (Storr, 9). The way in which Gonzalez-Torres made the viewer interact with his work was set up so that they might see themselves in the piece and not just relate it to the “artist and his lover” (Storr, 9).
The execution of Gonzalez-Torres’s work was brilliant. Instead of creating a piece of art to make a political statement about AIDS targeting the well educated, he set his work up so the average person would interact and be affected by it. The placement of the guard supervising the work was crucial in that they would tell the viewer the purpose behind the work. In relation to having the viewers interact with the artist’s work, there was discussion on where Gonzalez-Torres gained his inspiration. However all the work he was supposedly inspired from came after he had already created his work. Storr quoted Gonzalez-Torres saying, “I always though that there was nothing new under the sun. Except that it is not about being new, but about who makes it better. I like that more” (Storr, 13). This quote reminded me of Sherrie Levine and her attitude towards appropriation. It also makes me wonder if Gonzalez-Torres felt the same way, but to a lesser extreme than Sherrie Levine.
I agree with your statement "The execution of Gonzalez-Torres’s work was brilliant. Instead of creating a piece of art to make a political statement about AIDS targeting the well educated, he set his work up so the average person would interact and be affected by it." really captures of how I feel about Gonzalez's work. I find myself trapped in the notion of AIDS related art to be entirely political, a way to point a finger, or perpetuate any number of other agendas. Gonzalez's work, while large, is a quiet meditation on mortatality. Its focuses on the real outcome of aids. Its not about moeny or politics, its about you and I and everyone else living in these times.
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