128. FELIX GONZALEZ TORRES: A SPACE BETWEEN SWEETNESS AND LIFE.
MINIMAL, Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection - PARIS.
Felix Gonzalez Torres, Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection. Image: M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN).
'Pieces presented as simple, in plain sight yet weighted with symbolism, coded for those open to appreciate the deep-seated in the seemingly superficial. For a work which sits on a surface of a gallery floor, is also deeply rooted in the subconscious of human survival and stigma.’ M-A
At first glance, what appears to be a momentary shard of light resting on a floor - a reflection from a series of paintings above deceives the eye and is in fact a mass of confectionery.
Sun bleached as an outstretched shore - powdery pale as to be made of countless shells - ground down to form a singular land mass. Still and controlled yet symbolic of a process - volatile and destructive, yet presented as a sparkling mirage.
Ivory - the colour of bleached corals which lose pigment as they die, once fluid and vital, vivid - undulating as a textile, become morbidly brittle and white.
A dry landscape of zen, reinterprets nature as eternal, maintained by shadows of the trusted - mysteriously replenishing a bodies weight - as benign strangers visit with naive intrigue, to collect a souvenir - as a piece of a soul, as to be a canable. No shoots of green spring here only contemplations grown and dissolve as the possibility of thoughts rooted in regret.
A wrapper which loses its original purpose to protect becomes an ephemeral debris - once its contents is consumed.
Pieces presented as simple, in plain sight, yet weighted with symbolism, coded for those open to appreciate the deep-seated in the seemingly superficial. For a work which sits on a surface of a gallery floor, is also deeply rooted in the subconscious of human survival and stigma.
Overwhelming in scale, as a shocking exposure - seen as a mass of countless units in plain sight - confronts a notion of confession - forcing the eye to glaze in order to witness the work as a whole, reduced to a single type - as a verbal narrative distilled to a pertinent concentration. As pointalist dots... a pox, as a virus which coagulates to form a whole - to engule and to be engulfed.
Symptoms read as provenance - tracing back to origin as forms of remembrance - yet are read as unexpected and intriguing. As the exposure of situations which are hidden from view, as shame - brushed under a carpet. Symbolised as candies readily available and yet are demonised as dangerous, yet remain to continue to tantalise as sparkling choices - pre-packaged and light - yet complex and divisive.
Torres' confectionery choice remains a forbidden state of mind, an attitude-evoking knowing metaphor. A medium belonging to memory, even whimsy, a specific campness which evokes retrospection, and it is this awkward combination which supports an overarching taught atmosphere of the unnatural. A mass of glittering, unclaimed prizes as the contents of a piñata, which remain left behind, as if an event removes the opportunity of life.
MINIMAL - Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection - Paris, until 26 January 2026.
With thanks: Jessica Seoane.
M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) contemplation and interview series will return in the spring. Thank you for reading.