Felix Gonzalez-Torres
The work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres has associations with the minimalists’ use of industrial objects, with his own fragmented experience and the boundaries between love and sorrow, passion and loss, the public and the private. His work is now attracting attention in collections and exhibitions around the world. This installation, which was produced specially for Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, consists of light garlands comprising 500 bulbs and one black and white photograph: a close-up of an outstretched hand. In common with many of Gonzalez-Torres’ earlier works, the photograph is taken from the artist’s private collection and the hand is that of his recently deceased friend Jeff. The photo has been reproduced on billboards displayed for the duration of the exhibition in a number of sites in Stockholm, including the junction of Kungsgatan and Sveavägen, at Nybrogatan 16 and at Kocksgatan 54. Felix Gonzalez-Torres was born in Cuba in 1957 and died in New York in 1996.