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A Kith shoe marketing campaign meant to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the X-Males franchise has drawn comparisons to Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s iconic work, with many alleging that it attracts too closely on the artist’s famed sweet items.
The marketing campaign, which debuted in July, was teased with a picture of sneakers that had been piled in a nook. It is a mode of presentation that recollects a standard one for Gonzalez-Torres’s sweet items, which have been exhibited in quite a lot of methods. Whereas they’ve been steadily proven towards partitions or in corners, the sweet items have additionally been unfold out throughout flooring in carpet-like formations.
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“I can not consider nobody instructed me that KITH ripped off Félix González-Torres’s piece about his associate dying of AIDS for a drop celebrating ***the sixtieth anniversary of the X-Males franchise***,” wrote the designer and author Elizabeth Goodspeed in a put up on X/Twitter yesterday. Her put up has now amassed greater than 30,000 likes.
Whereas she didn’t identify which piece, Goodspeed might have been referring to “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.), from 1991, which requires an array of wrapped candies to be organized in dimensions relying on its set up. This work, like different sweet items, is a portrait of types, with its topic on this case being Gonzalez-Torres’s boyfriend Ross Laycock, who died of AIDS-related issues the 12 months the work was made.
Like different sweet items, “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) has an “best weight”—on this case, 175 kilos, a quantity meant to correspond to the typical male physique weight. In accordance with a listing of supplies equipped by the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Basis, the candies are exhibited in “countless provide,” that means that they are often replenished as viewers take them away and devour them.
Whereas the frequent interpretation of items like “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) has been that they’re in regards to the AIDS disaster, loss of life, or each, Gonzalez-Torres mentioned these works in quite a lot of methods. There are additionally different items that don’t explicitly take up these matters, comparable to 1990’s “Untitled” (USA Immediately), that includes purple, white, and blue sweets in allusion to a equally named newspaper, and “Untitled” (Portrait of Marcel Brient), a grouping of candies in blue wrappers that alludes to a French collector who purchased Gonzalez-Torres’s work. Each of these works have additionally been proven in corners.
The Kith marketing campaign, launched in July, was a collaboration with Marvel and ASICS, and featured seven new variations of the GEL-LYTE III shoe that are supposed to pay homage to X-Males characters. The announcement for the gathering didn’t point out Gonzalez-Torres’s work.
The {photograph} of the piled sneakers appeared to solely be a teaser picture used to advertise the brand new GEL-LYTE III sneakers—it was not clear whether or not viewers may take away these sneakers, or if this mound had even been exhibited publicly. A Kith spokesperson didn’t reply to request for remark.
In a follow-up tweet, Goodspeed wrote, “I doubt this was intentional, however I don’t suppose that makes it any higher—nonetheless a large oversight that nobody considered / knew both visually comparable reference, each of which have essential context and intense emotional that means. Inept moodboarding or media illiteracy at finest!”
A consultant for the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Basis couldn’t be reached for remark.
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