Overview
My name is Durran Gilson, I am a huge nerd who really enjoys sci-fi and fantasy. I plan on majoring in process engineering. By the end of this course, I expect that I will be able to better appreciate how pieces of art are composed. This is the first art course I have taken at VVC and I think I will have to take at least one more after this.
One of the most impactful pieces of art that I have ever seen is Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA) by Feliz Gonzalez-Torres. The piece is a pile of candy that ideally weighs 170 lbs, the weight of Felix's boyfriend before he contracted AIDS during the AIDS crisis. The audience is encouraged to take and eat a piece of the candy, which then causes the piece to slowly wither away as the exhibit goes on. This makes the audience participate in the symbolic wasting away of Felix's late boyfriend, but through the act of eating the candy it also emphasizes the joy that Ross brought to the world. It is one of many famous pieces of art that came about during the AIDS crisis, but it is the one piece that I feel is the most effective at conveying the grief that comes from slowly losing the ones you love. Another piece of art from the era that I recommend you all look into is Electric Fan (Feel It Motherfuckers) by John S. Boskovich.