The first artist who I liked was Keith Haring. He started out making drawings in the subway (illegaly). His daring way of work and colourful paintings has always had a place in my heart. He also has a meaning for every symbol he draws talking mostly about the government and the AIDS crisis.

There is no doubt that Félix González-Torres’ work inspire me and relate with my identity. His queer like themes, feeling of comfort and loneliness, the need to be heard and the wall between the private and public domain shown in a minimalistic and raw way he interacts with the public amazes me. “Without the public these works are nothing. I need the public to complete the work. I ask the public to help me, to take responsibility, to become part of my work, to join in.” You see this in his titles. They’re almost all “Untitled” and for the public to interpret the work and creating a title for the work. ‘A portrait of Ross’ and ‘Death by Gun’ are great examples for the interaction with the public. This is a piece began in 1989 where Félix was stacking papers on top of each other creating a pile of printed posters. Here the viewer is invited to take a sheet. The personal stories of Félix are very relatable to me as a gay man myself. I couldn’t imagine living during the 60s with the rise of the AIDS crisis. All your close friends passing away, having their homes cleaned out as if nobody were living there, ready for the new tenant. Being too scared for this new disease. It’s just a jarring thought. Nobody deserves this and Félix knew that, so, he brought back the situation in his work as you see with ‘Perfect Lovers’ (1991). This piece was a way to memorialize his partner who passed the same year of AIDS. The piece shows two identical clocks which started at the same second and minute with both new batteries. As time goes by the clocks eventually go out of sync where one start ticking later than the other eventually one stopping because of the batteries running out.

Platon’s work is truly amazing. He photographs ordinary people to world leaders. His background in graphic design helps through his process. Platon has his own style in photography, once you know it you’ll soon know which pictures are from Platon. The way he uses eye’s and hands are one of the points to know if it’s a Platon picture or not. Photographic world leaders from Putin to Obama stays the same. He puts everyone on a cement block making everyone the same. He focuses more on the subject by shooting film, not looking at the image soon after it’s shot. This way the viewer can see the stories in every picture he makes.