Art & Audience/Politics - Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Felix Gonzalez-Torres

"I want you, the viewer to be intellectually challenged, moved and informed . . . I need the public to complete the work. I ask the public to help me, to take responsibility, to become part of my work, to join in. I tend to think of myself as a theater director who is trying to convey some ideas by reinterpreting the notion of the division of roles: author, public, and director" - Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Interactive or “Participatory art”1 as Eleanor Heartney suggests is art which involves the audience in order for the artwork to fully function. Adriano Pedrosa states Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s art is highly dependant on audience interaction, giving the viewers an “obligation to act”2 in reaction to his works. As seen in Gonzalez-Torres’s artworks, meaning is created through the act of participation. He presents the viewer with a situation where curiosity and intrigue acquires the better of them relying on a physical or emotional engagement with the work.

There are many personal references to Gonzalez-Torres’s works which are only acquired through audience participation. Issues such as gender and sexuality, death and loss, time and change, freedom and repression are questioned. Gonzales-Torres’s life partner Ross who died of AIDS in 1991, maintained a recurring role in most of his work. As seen in “Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)” 1991, the candy spill begun at the weight of the two combined lovers, and as the mound is stripped slowly, changing in shape and weight it represents mortality and loss.


Felix Gonzalez-Torres, "Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)", 1991,
175 lbs Fruit Flasher Candy, size variable.

Also in “Untitled (Strange Bird)”, 1993, Pedrosa states the paper stacks “sit silent like tombstones or anti-monuments”3

depicting black clouds with a singular bird in flight, representing power of the individual spirit referring to Gonzalez-Torres’s experience with AIDS and the effect it had on his life. The precarious shape, weight and composition of “Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)” and “Untitled (Strange Bird)” are slowly diminished, as the audience is invited to take pieces away with them. However in this case “to eliminate is to complete”4 with the final act of the audience, the artwork gains a life of its own and is replenished by the gallery.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, "Untitled (Strange Bird)", 1993

8 in. x 44 1/2 in. x 33 1/2 in. (20.32 cm x 113.03 cm x 85.09 cm)
Collection SFMOMA

Gonzalez-Torres explores the medium of audience interaction differently to his candy spills and paper stacks, In “Untitled (Go Go Dancing platform)” 1991, the audience is invited to watch and become emotionally involved in the artwork consisting of a white platform with a rim of lights occasionally enlivened by a well-muscled male dancer who privately listens to music. This creates a situation where the viewer participates from a more observational viewpoint, and like most performance art, is confronting to witness. Heartney suggests that “it is the attitude of the audience toward the art which becomes the work”5.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, "Untitled (Go Go Dancing Platform)", 1991,
wood, lightbulbs, acrylic paint, GoGo dancer in silver lame bathing
suit with listening device and sneakers, 21 1/2 x 72 x 72 in.
Switzerland, private collection.

One of Gonzales-Torres last conceived works before his death in 1996 was “Untitled (Golden)” 1995, which was essentially a curtain used as a room divider, suspended in which the viewer must pass. He invited viewers to take part in the metaphorical and literal evolution of his work’s meaning as Pedrosa suggests “The gentle confrontation of this golden screen provokes the tactile and sensory, inviting the viewer to transform its shape simply by walking through”6. “Untitled (Golden)” is a work of transitory passage associated with his battle with AIDS - from life to death, public to private, the known to the unknown.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, "untitled (golden)", 1995

Strands of beads and hanging device, variable dimensionsSolomon

R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Art Institute of Chicago, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 2008.

1. Eleanor Heartney, Art & Today. ( London: Phaidon, 2008).
2. Adriano Pedrosa "Felix Gonzalez-Torres - Breif Article". ArtForum. 16 Oct, 2009.

(accessed 17/10/09)

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_4_39/ai_68697165/
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. Eleanor Heartney, Art & Today. ( London: Phaidon, 2008).

6. Adriano pedrosa "felix Gonzalez-torres -Breif Article". ArtForum. 16 Oct,2009.

(accessed 17/10/09)

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/gonzalez-torres_felix.html

Bibliography:

Heartney, Eleanor. Art & Today. London: Phaidon, 2008.

Komis, Dmitry “whitehot Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Isa Genzken, Francesco Vezzoli @ the 52nd Venice Biennale”. Whitehot Magazine, 2007. (accessed 17/10/09)
http://www.whitehotmagazine.com/articles/francesco-vezzoli-52nd-venice-biennale/790

Pedrosa, Adriano "Felix Gonzalez-Torres - Breif Article". ArtForum. 16 Oct, 2009.
(accessed 1710/09)

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_4_39/ai_68697165/