Within the world of contemporary art, an issue that often presents itself is the issue of context. In many cases such as the one I will present in this essay, the idea of understanding and appreciating a piece of work is often quite difficult without the back-story. Not only does context place the work in time, but also allows us as viewers to further relate our own experiences to what the artist is trying to say. This process of obtaining context through research therefore allows for a deeper appreciation of the given work despite our initial assumptions and bias.
My process for understanding a work of art, like many, starts with the work itself. Things such as bodily response for example are the first steps to decoding a piece of art. …show more content…
I knew that what I was looking at were two clocks on a wall and that they were frozen in a photographic format on the screen. At this point there was not much to say except to ask questions. “Who is Felix Gonzales Torres?”, “What do the clocks represent?”, and “What aspect of time is this artist trying to convey?”. All of these questions yet no real answers without a little bit of digging.
Given the title “Perfect Lovers” I immediately assumed that the two clocks could possibly represent two individuals in a romantic relationship. The aspect of time however, was still a mystery.
Gonzales-Torres was a “Cuban-American sculptor” , working often in response to the “AIDS crisis” of the 1990’s. Torres himself was directly affected by AIDS as both him and “his partner, Canadian Ross Laycock” both contracted and unfortunately died from the disease. Now knowing the relationship used within “(Untitled)Perfect Lovers” was most likely that of Torres and his partner, allows a little more perspective into the works …show more content…
While not directly relating to the piece in an artistic format, it was very interesting to see someone interpret the work in a scientific way. Hochman when speaking about Gonzales-Torres’s piece in regards to his study of “visual structures” and “big visual data”, describes the work as presenting analogous times”. “Yet due to batteries running down at different rates in each of the two clocks, they are slightly out of synch.” Therefore creating a “juxtaposition of two perfectly aligned times that gradually run down and advance at differing rates, a metaphorical unfulfilled desire of two nearly identical and symmetrical beings to become one” hence the title, “Perfect Lovers”. This quote from Hochman echoes the statement made by Rounthwaite regarding the fact that the clocks will never “become perfectly
My process for understanding a work of art, like many, starts with the work itself. Things such as bodily response for example are the first steps to decoding a piece of art. …show more content…
I knew that what I was looking at were two clocks on a wall and that they were frozen in a photographic format on the screen. At this point there was not much to say except to ask questions. “Who is Felix Gonzales Torres?”, “What do the clocks represent?”, and “What aspect of time is this artist trying to convey?”. All of these questions yet no real answers without a little bit of digging.
Given the title “Perfect Lovers” I immediately assumed that the two clocks could possibly represent two individuals in a romantic relationship. The aspect of time however, was still a mystery.
Gonzales-Torres was a “Cuban-American sculptor” , working often in response to the “AIDS crisis” of the 1990’s. Torres himself was directly affected by AIDS as both him and “his partner, Canadian Ross Laycock” both contracted and unfortunately died from the disease. Now knowing the relationship used within “(Untitled)Perfect Lovers” was most likely that of Torres and his partner, allows a little more perspective into the works …show more content…
While not directly relating to the piece in an artistic format, it was very interesting to see someone interpret the work in a scientific way. Hochman when speaking about Gonzales-Torres’s piece in regards to his study of “visual structures” and “big visual data”, describes the work as presenting analogous times”. “Yet due to batteries running down at different rates in each of the two clocks, they are slightly out of synch.” Therefore creating a “juxtaposition of two perfectly aligned times that gradually run down and advance at differing rates, a metaphorical unfulfilled desire of two nearly identical and symmetrical beings to become one” hence the title, “Perfect Lovers”. This quote from Hochman echoes the statement made by Rounthwaite regarding the fact that the clocks will never “become perfectly