The Devils worship is lazyness...

Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled” (Golden)

In the uppermost floor/level of the Gugenheim Museum, once you make it past the powerful and inspiring retrospective of Kandinsky that fills the entire rotunda, you come a room like that in the above image. From floor to ceiling (over 3 metres above you) stretch's a luxurious gold bead curtain. Through the shimmering movement of the golden beads is something even more seductive on the floor beyond the curtain. As you gently push through the beads you come to a lrge atrium space, beautifully lit with natural light. The only object in the gallery is on the floor in front of you; 2 pounds (0.9KG) of gold compressed in to a delicately thin mat. It was incredible, it shimmers and moves as the light changes around it and threatens to dissolve into the floor and vainsh!
The interaction of these two works was incredible, the interplay on the simplest of colours and objects created a very powerful space. One that seemed even more overwhelming after the sensory experience of Kandinsky works. The exploration of the symbolism of gold and the attachments we make to this colour / material was simple and at the same time incredibly powerful. I think part of this was also the tactile nature of having to physically push through Gonzalez-Torres’s bead curtain after an entre gallery of only being able to look. To suddenly employ another sense was very powerful and set the viewer up to interact with the beautiful materiality of Horn's shimmering, almost translucent mat.