Vito Acconci

drawing of ‘mur’ island, graz, austria
courtesy acconci studio © vito acconci.
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/acconci.html

Vito Acconci
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/acconci.html

Vito Acconci is a landscape architect and installation artist based in Brooklyn. He started as a poet in the 1960s and by the end of the decade had moved to video and performance art, using his body, rather then words, to present metaphors commenting on society and his surroundings. His work often explores, in depth, what he perceives to be issues subconsciously faced by those in the world each day. Some of his work "demonstrat[ed] the paradoxical situation of the artist confounded by two desires: to reveal oneself for the sake of pleasing the audience, and the conflicting desire to protect one's own ego."

While his work is well-executed and he conveys the thoughts that he wishes to, at least to me, I find the lack of cohesiveness in his work disrupting. He focuses less on the progression on the visualization and more on the progression of his thoughts and ideas. He has a somewhat disregard for his viewer... His goal is to present and express his ideas the way that he wants to with disregard, though not completely, to how the viewer will interact with and interpret his work. The theory and message behind the work is what is most important to him. This is both admirable and distasteful. I really admire the fact that he is so true to his vision and that admiration is what I am going to focus on here.


While I appreciate and respect the work that he has done, it is more the philosophy behind his work that attracts me.


In reference to "Remote Control": "The tying up is an occasion for me to get into wrapping you up in a more generalized way." The rope represents Acconci's will in the woman's space, binding her physically and mentally, as she stops resisting and acquiesces to his demands. As a study of consent and control, an underlying theme of the work is the manipulative potential of media technology, which reaches isolated viewers and subjects them to its organizing control."


In reference to Claim Excerpts: "In this record of a live performance, Acconci gives physical manifestation to the subterranean regions of the artist's mind and will, revealing the effort he must make as an artist to simultaneously convince himself and his audience. Perhaps no other piece from the early 1970s more thoroughly spells out the psychologized drama engendered by performance-based video.... Blindfolded, seated in a basement at the end of a long flight of stairs, armed with metal pipes and a crowbar, threatening to swing at anyone who tried to come near, Acconci simultaneously invited and prohibited every visitor to the 93 Grand Street loft to descend into the world of the unconscious."
—Kathy O'Dell




From an interview (http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/acconci.html): 

do you read for pleasure rather than for work? 
it's all the same. I don't separate them.

because you are an artist...

well, me and the people here at the studio think of ourselves as
designers. we're not artists. my work comes from a background
in art. I realized that I wasn't interested in viewers, I was interested
in users and participants, so it made sense that my work had to
move to design or architecture. though it took a long time for me
to see this..


This expression of his philosophy is why I both admire and dislike his work....


I was unable to view  his videos because of streaming quality, but I viewed many still shots.

'City of Words', lithograph by Vito Acconci, 1999

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vito_Acconci
http://www.acconci.com/
http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$artistdetail?ACCONCIV
http://www.ubu.com/film/acconci.html
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/acconci.html
http://www.mediatecaonline.net/mediatecaonline/SConsultaAutor?ope=2&ID_IDIOMA=en&criteri=Acconci,+Vito
http://weblab.uni-lueneburg.de/socialsoftware/paradise/index.php/Vito_Acconci
OTHeR SoUrce:
http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2008/04/art-space-talk-vito-acconci.html