The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 13, 2026

Two glowing light bulbs hang from porcelain sockets suspended by a single hook on a white wall. Long white cords drop vertically, eventually pooling in a tangled coil on a polished wood floor. One cord branches from the heap to plug into a low wall outlet. The bulbs hang closely together, one slightly lower than the other, casting a soft, diffuse radiance against the flat, matte expanse of the gallery wall.

"Untitled" (March 5th) #2

1991

Felix Gonzalez-Torres

(American, 1957–1996)
America
light bulbs, porcelain light sockets, and extension cords
Scott Mueller Collection 3.2017
© The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation
Location: 229B Contemporary

Did You Know?

In accordance with the artist's wishes, when the lightbulbs in this work are extinguished, they must be replaced.

Description

Cuban-born artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s sculptural installations are imbued with details of his life. On March 5, 1991, he lost his partner Ross Laycock to an AIDS-related death. In this work, Gonzales-Torres conjures a couple through a pair of gradually extinguishing lightbulbs, an artwork that quietly commemorates his partner’s passing and makes a larger reference to the AIDS epidemic. Gonzalez-Torres’s own premature death due to AIDS five years later adds an additional narrative dimension to the work: viewers bear witness to both artist and partners’ lives and losses through the two nestling bulbs hanging from entwined cords.
  • Contemporary Installation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
  • {{cite web|title="Untitled" (March 5th) #2|url=false|author=Felix Gonzalez-Torres|year=1991|access-date=13 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/3.2017