LO: My Inspiration

The interactive piece that I picked is “untitled” by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. The basis of the art piece is that it is a spilled pile of candy that weighs about 175 pounds. The weight of the colorful candy represents the artist’s partner that died of AIDS. The concept of the project is that when people view the installation, they are able to take a piece of candy with them and it is supposed to be reminiscent of the way that his partner slowly diminished before he died. The project was an interactive piece in the media of candy so it did not use any software or scripts to create. This interactive piece was one of the first of quite a few that were also interactive pieces surrounding the love and loss themes that surrounded the AIDS epidemic and how it ravaged the LGBTQ community specifically gay men. In my opinion, it points toward other interactive pieces that allow for the viewers to step into a new perspective whether it is the perpetrator, like in the case of the piece by Gonzalez-Torres, or into the shoes of those affected by it.

This is a link to some descriptions of his pieces that were installed in museums around the country.