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Lot Essay
Gonzalez-Torres, a gay, HIV positive man from Cuba, was acutely conscious of his marginal position, being exiled from his culture and separated from others by his sexuality.
The light sculptures are both a celebration of the ephemeral pleasures of dancing and parties (or fleeting human contact) and wistful reminders of shortlived delight. The lamps are brilliant, but not for long; they are a symbol of spiritual enlightenment, all too easily extinguished.
Gonzalez-Torres' work deals with memories and the political dimension of private grief in a public arena. They involve the spectator in a complex binding of nostalgia, anger and celebration of short lives.
This work, one of twenty-four consisting of strings of lights, was made to memorialize what the artist felt were, for him, the twenty-four most important events or concepts. They deliberately incorporate the artist's subjectivity and his own history into the art and encourage us to understand both art and its societal role.
The light sculptures are both a celebration of the ephemeral pleasures of dancing and parties (or fleeting human contact) and wistful reminders of shortlived delight. The lamps are brilliant, but not for long; they are a symbol of spiritual enlightenment, all too easily extinguished.
Gonzalez-Torres' work deals with memories and the political dimension of private grief in a public arena. They involve the spectator in a complex binding of nostalgia, anger and celebration of short lives.
This work, one of twenty-four consisting of strings of lights, was made to memorialize what the artist felt were, for him, the twenty-four most important events or concepts. They deliberately incorporate the artist's subjectivity and his own history into the art and encourage us to understand both art and its societal role.