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Archives Internship at the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation
The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation is looking for a highly motivated, detail-oriented intern to assist with managing the library and archives of the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Projects include organizing library and press archives; cataloging and organizing transparencies, ephemera, newspaper archives, and candy and stack samples from exhibitions; researching exhibitions; organizing paper files on works and exhibitions; and assisting with maintaining the digital image archives.
This internship would be ideal for a graduate student in a library science program specializing in archives or upper-level undergraduate seeking to complete an independent project or fulfill a program requirement. Ideal candidates would be interested in artist archives with a strong interest in Felix Gonzalez-Torres and a desire to learn about the work and challenges of running an artist foundation. An ability to work independently and prior relevant job experience are essential, as the candidate will be afforded a high level of independence in implementing projects. Strong administrative and computer skills are a must. Experience with FileMaker Pro is desired.
Requirements: Intern must be able to work 2 days a week. Time commitment is May – August 2012 with the possibility for extension. Candidate must be local to New York City. The Foundation Office is located in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.
Salary: Unpaid. Lunch is provided every day.
Please email resumes and cover letters to Emilie Keldie at e.keldie@felixgonzalez-torresfoundation.org with Subject line “Internship” followed by your first and last name. No phone calls, please.
From 1986 until his death in 1996, Felix Gonzalez-Torres produced a prolific body of work, transforming everyday objects—clocks, light bulbs, candy—into profound meditations on love and loss. This installation is an allegorical portrait of the artist’s partner, Ross Laycock, who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1991. The 175 pounds of candy correspond to an ideal body weight, and viewers are encouraged to take a piece. The diminishing amount of candy sym-bolically refers to Laycock’s body languishing from disease. The artist has made sure that the art survives, however, by instructing that the candies be continuously replaced. In the simplest of forms, and with the participation of both his audience and the museum staff, Gonzalez-Torres comments on personal pain and the endurance of art, while challeng-ing traditional museum practices and expectations of museum visitors.
TO CONTROL
THE PAIN
After doing all these shows, I’ve become burnt out with trying to have some kind of personal presence in the work. Because I’m not my art. It’s not the form and it’s not the shape, not the way these things function that’s being put into question. What is being put into question is me. I made “Untitled” (Placebo) because I needed to make it. There was no other consideration involved except that I wanted to make art work that could disappear, that never existed, and it was a metaphor for when Ross was dying. So it was a metaphor that I would abandon this work before this work abandoned me. I’m going to destroy it before it destroys me. That was my little amount of power when it came to this work. I didn’t want it to last, because then it couldn’t hurt me.
From the very beginning it was not even there – I made something that doesn’t exist. I control the pain. That’s really what it is. That’s one of the parts of this work. Of course, it has to do with all the bullshit of seduction and the art of authenticity. I know that stuff, but on the other side, it has a personal level that is very real. It’s not about being a con artist. It’s also about excess, about the excess of pleasure. It’s like a child who wants a landscape of candies. First and foremost it’s about Ross. Then I wanted to please myself and then everybody.
Born in Guáimaro, Cuba, in 1957, Felix Gonzales-Torres also spent time growing up in Puerto Rico, where he attended the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan. He became an American citizen in 1976 and moved to New York City in 1979, graduating from the Pratt Institute with a photography degree in 1983. He received a master’s degree from the International Center of Photography in 1987. Gonzales-Torres died in 1996 at the age of 38.
http://www.essex.ac.uk/arthistory/rebus/PDFS/Issue%205/Bowman.pdf
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