Gonzalez-Torres was an active member of the artist collective Group Material (1979–1996), which supported an agenda of feminism, civil rights, and gay rights in a time of increasing political conservatism. His own understated installations consist of everyday materials such as lightbulbs, newspapers, and candy, and address concerns both wholly personal and universal—impermanence, love, loss, and the cyclical nature of life. Here Gonzalez-Torres has imbued light bulbs, common utilitarian objects, with poetic significance. The life span of each bulb, like that of a person, is of a particular duration and will ultimately burn out.