Ben Schumacher originally posted this tribute to Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Perfect Lovers on the blog shu and joe in 2009. The original Perfect Lovers was created in 1991, shortly after Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ partner Ross Laycock was diagnosed with AIDS, which ultimately claimed the lives of both men. The two readymade clocks ticked in unison, presumably until one or the other died. It was a powerful allegory for the limited time the artist knew he had left with Laycock.
Schumacher’s homage is also a readymade of sorts—the artist found a link for the above GIF of a clock face and inserted it twice into his page. His Perfect Lovers also come with an expiration date—the clocks will disappear when the original host eventually deletes the file. Here, though, we’ve archived the GIF on the Art F City servers, so it will be keep ticking for as long as we do.
And the legacy of Felix Gonzalez-Torres is as vital as ever. Tomorrow afternoon from 3:00 to 5:00, Visual AIDS is hosting the Last Address tribute walk, which will lead a group to various sites in Manhattan where artists who died in the AIDS epidemic lived their final years. The event kicks off with a screening of Ira Sachs’ short film Last Address at the SVA Theater and includes visits to the homes of Gonxalez-Torres, Vito Russo, Assotto Saint, Tseng Kwong Chi, Hugh Steers, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Chloe Dzubilo. More information is available here.
