“Some [Museums]…feel they need armed officers…”

(Felix Gonzalez-Torres candy piece, part of an exhibition entitled, “America”)

We had a conversation involving Felix Gonzalez-Torres last night, specifically concerning his candy and stacks of paper pieces. There is something quite compelling and, dare we say, beautiful about approaching an artwork and being able to take part of it with you (or all of it for that matter). What makes Gonzalez-Torres’ work even more compelling is the fact that his work, when exhibited in a museum, is one of the few if not the only one which does not require the hawk-like presence of security guards. Ironically, an article appeared in today’s Los Angeles Times describing the presence of armed guards at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (LACMA).

LACMA claims that these three guards, armed with 9mm and .38 caliber pistols and supplied by Inter-Con Security Systems Inc., are there to guard Damien Hirst’s Away From the Flock sculpture, of a catatonic lamb submerged in formaldehyde and water.

“The current guard in front of the Hirst piece has been there about a month, guards say, noting the potential for vandals to smash the tank and create a toxic leak.”

As odd as this may seem, Los Angeles Police Department’s Don Hrycyk shares with us his deeply poignant philosophy: “You find security guards in every aspect of American life, at banks and markets and malls.” There are also armed guards and military personnel in northern Mexico. Read more of Hyrcyk’s thoughts here.