Two incandescent bulbs dangle from entwined cords. Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ work is both ephemerally beautiful and deeply profound. Untitled (March 5th) #2 is his first light piece and perhaps his most personal. It is a stunning memorial to his late lover, Ross Laycock, titled for the day he died in 1991. As with his other work, this piece speaks not only to the powerful nature of love and human connection but also to the impermanence of life. The raw, industrial beauty of the light bulb series coupled with their almost ethereal quality make this series among his most stunning, both aesthetically and emotionally.



There are few artists who are able to convey such intense poignancy through such simplicity. Felix’s art does not force itself upon the viewer but instead invites a quiet emotional contemplation. His art is not only about his creative process but about the role his audience is both encouraged and expected to play in defining it. To Felix, this is exactly what art should be. It is at the viewer’s discretion how the strands of bulbs should be arranged — cascading down a wall or in a glowing pile on the floor. They are also given the liberty to take his art with them, combing a sheet off of one of his famous stacks of paper or plucking a piece of candy from a pile on the floor. In the same way that these piles slowly dwindle and disappear, the bulbs eventually extinguish, subtly alluding to the transient and fleeting nature of life. Each of these delicate elements can be endlessly replaced, creating a cycle that is both indestructible and impermanent at the same time.



Untitled (March 5th) #2 is one of Felix’s most intense works and is imbued with a beautiful melancholy. The pair of hanging lights are as naked and raw as Felix will get. The two solitary light bulbs burn bright but over the course of time will slowly begin to fade, inevitably one before the other, until they both burn out. This work echoes the same vulnerability as Felix’s Untitled (Perfect Lovers) in which two clocks hang side by side, ticking in perfect unison, until one is destined to stop working before the other. These works are unquestionable symbols of his relationship with Ross and heady metaphors for the joy of love coupled with the fear of loss. Felix’s art embraces contradictions and evokes an incredible appreciation for life, two tenets that are eloquently captured in this striking piece.