Hauser & Wirth: Felix Gonzalez-Torres Exhibition

Today, a group of us went over to the Hauser & Wirth to see the Felix Gonzalez-Torres retrospective. Spread across three of their galleries in different cities, the London portion was very small, but his work is incredibly poignant.

FGT was an artist in New York City during the AIDS pandemic in the 1990s, and eventually died of AIDS in 1996. He is well known for his installations, which are very interactive and address themes of temporality, mortality, and, perhaps most powerfully, his love for his partner, Ross Laycock, who died in 1991. Some of the most famous include his clocks Untitled (Perfect Lovers) (1991) and Portrait of Ross in L.A. (1991), a pile of candy which viewers were offered to take. Both made the year Laycock died--a very prolific period for the artist--they are celebrations of their love as well as performances of grief. The clocks run side by side in perfect synchronicity, one for Gonzalez-Torres, and the other for his lover. Eventually, the batteries in one clock die and the clock stops, leaving the other to tick alone. The batteries are not replaced, and at some point, both clocks stop.

Untitled (Perfect Lovers) (1991)

In Portrait of Ross in L.A., each visitor to the installation takes a piece of him away with them, in an act of both obliteration and perpetuation. The candy pile itself dissipates, but each person eats of piece of the candy, becoming a part of the artwork themselves.

Portrait of Ross in L.A. (1991)

So neither of those pieces were in this small exhibition, but they are a good introduction to the artist's work. The Hauser & Wirth exhibition, curated by artists who knew FGT, had many of his puzzle works, meant to evoke the fragility of life and representation. A pair of two mirrors stand on the wall and invite viewers to enter the perspective of the artist and his love. On another wall, two light bulbs hang together, lit 24/7. They were both lit when we were there, but there is the expectation that eventually one, and then the other, will burn out. 

 Two of the puzzle works

Overall, it felt like a very understated, but tasteful, hanging. There were no wall plaques, so some previous knowledge was useful. They did provide a work list as well as a press release.