Big billboard @ Ditmars station--two pillows

[rob]

I have no idea what this billboard is advertising.  It's a b&w photo of two empty pillows on a bed.  Any clues?

[braun]

I think it's for sheets

[okkichan]

My husband knew! I can't take credit for this knowledge:

It's a 1991 artwork by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, writes High Line Blog, "best known for creating images that addressed his homosexuality and the painful loss of friends to AIDS."

W.M. Hunt wrote here about the empty bed project, "What was great about this piece is that as it was situated in the public domain without any explanatory text, everyone who saw it could interpret the piece differently... There was something incredibly sad about it. The implication to me was that now the bed doesn’t have two people in it. Something has happened. Something is missing. Something is absent. To me, I saw it as a testimonial to his lover, who had died."

Here's some more info.

*Edit* What I don't know is why it's on display at Ditmars right now?

[rob]

*Edit* What I don't know is why it's on display at Ditmars right now?

yeah, not sure of the timing either.  glad I posted otherwise would have been racking my brain trying to figure it out

[braun]

I actually thought it was an ad for sheets.

[BoredTemp]

I thought maybe a hotel ad.   Oops.

[okkichan]

I figured it had to be some art piece. No business would spend that kind of money without prominently displaying some sort of brand information, right?

[rob]

I figured it had to be some art piece. No business would spend that kind of money without prominently displaying some sort of brand information, right?

yes, I agree....I wonder if this was funded by the artist, or by city public arts funding.

[JoeyC]

I would have thought that Happy Ending massage parlor was going for the big time with an ad. 

[Rangers42]

I had no idea what it was but regardless I was really happy to see art, not advertising.

[mridude]

It reminds me of the warm bed I just left to go to work in the morning.

[akuban]

It's part of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art called "Print/Out":

More info here.

[rob]

The pillows are gone *sniff*...now we have an ugly ad for yet another new gym!!!!

[James Maxx]

Im glad they got rid of that pillow ad.

[braun]

Im glad they got rid of that pillow ad.

I agree.  I didn't like it and most people didn't know what it was supposed to be about.  I dont' see what purpose it served